# Ploughing



## Supa Dexta (May 28, 2014)

For those of you who still use a conventional plough, how many acres do you turn over in a year? I'm running around +400 acres now and have been shooting for about 60 a year that I turn over and put into grain (oats or barley) for personal feed mostly. I do 2 years of grain and then back into hay land. But even at this pace, it will be 10 yrs to cycle thru this land.

I use a 3 furrow plough with a 100hp tractor, and it's a battle some days on the old fields that haven't been turned over in decades. Heavy clays here, and hard pulling. Also I under sow in the 2nd year and its been working out well.


----------



## barnrope (Mar 22, 2010)

I average about 100 acres moldboard plowed per year. I use a JD 8200 and a 4440 on 5 18" bottom IHC 720 plows. Sometimes the 4020 gets hooked to a 4 18" as well. I plow about half my cornstalks and any hay ground that might be going out.

Last year I hired 36 acres of hayground plowing out. Here are pictures...


----------



## stack em up (Mar 7, 2013)

I love moldboard plowing. I try to plow 40 acres/year, but lately it's been more like 20-25. Most of the corn ground gets deep ripped at 12-14".

I actually just torched half of my moldboards off to make a hi residue plow like Francis Childs did, and am gonna try plowing at 10". Otherwise we plow a hand length deep.


----------



## Bonfire (Oct 21, 2012)

I just realized in those pictures that it's snowing. I've never seen a moldboard plow in use while it's snowing. Boy that land is black.

Too bad about the windmills.


----------



## Bgriffin856 (Nov 13, 2013)

Depends on the year weather and rotation. But we moldboard everything usually 75-90 acres in a good year. IH 700 5x16's behind a JD 7405 mfwd or IH 1066 and we have a IH 540 4x16's behind a IH 856. In clay-loam to heavy clay. I love plowing but a chisel plow is on the list. Save time and fuel and wear and tear.


----------



## Bgriffin856 (Nov 13, 2013)

Love hearing those bottoms trip out 

Plow at night sometimes


----------



## Supa Dexta (May 28, 2014)

Bonfire said:


> I just realized in those pictures that it's snowing. I've never seen a moldboard plow in use while it's snowing. Boy that land is black.
> 
> Too bad about the windmills.


I remember ploughing on christmas day as a teenager many years ago. There was a light covering of snow, but no real frost.


----------



## sethd11 (Jan 1, 2012)

Pretty much the only time that plow ever moves is when we are putting hay back in. I really like starting with a debris free seedbed. I'm not a big fan of no till on the clay i have in my area. Usually if I'm in lower black ground I hook up to the IH 710 6x18". Heavy hills she's gets partnered with the DMI 4x20" variable width monster. Now that's a plow. Built like a Mack truck.


----------



## swmnhay (Jun 13, 2008)

I have a IH 735 vari width with the mini moldboards.My best bean crops ever were on ground plowed with it.But it gets to black on corn ground that has been baled or chopped.I went to ripping everything but thinking about doing some plowing on standing cornstalks.Bad thing is they are my rougher fields more prone to erosion and odd shaped so more of PIA to moldboard plow then to rip.

Tried no-tilling beans on those farms and bean yields crashed.Hard to grow beans in concrete.Most bean ground is chiseled here in fall also to get it to warm up and dry out in spring.


----------



## haybaler101 (Nov 30, 2008)

The only time a plow gets hooked up in this part of the world is to build up a terrace or fix a washout. Otherwise, they stay in the weeds. Everything is no-tilled or vertical tilled here. Even standard chisel plows are going away fast.


----------



## cornshucker (Aug 22, 2011)

barnrope said:


> I average about 100 acres moldboard plowed per year. I use a JD 8200 and a 4440 on 5 18" bottom IHC 720 plows. Sometimes the 4020 gets hooked to a 4 18" as well. I plow about half my cornstalks and any hay ground that might be going out.
> 
> Last year I hired 36 acres of hayground plowing out. Here are pictures...


Love to see them old Cats doing a fine job. We still do some moldboard plowing 3 x 16 rollovers or 4 x 16 mostly use the rollovers as most of our land is rolling or just plain steep.


----------



## mlappin (Jun 25, 2009)

haybaler101 said:


> The only time a plow gets hooked up in this part of the world is to build up a terrace or fix a washout. Otherwise, they stay in the weeds. Everything is no-tilled or vertical tilled here. Even standard chisel plows are going away fast.


Ditto here. We only chisel plow about 35 acres every year and that's what the cows over winter on.

Local BTO has a few ten bottom plows they pull with a big NH and Versatile 4wds. Their theory is it cuts down on weeds the next year. Everybody else's theory is they wouldn't have weed problems if they wouldn't let them goto seed every year.


----------



## Teslan (Aug 20, 2011)

I like plowing. I don't think it should be done every year, but once in awhile it's a good thing. Plowing has kind of been vilified by the no till experts over the last decade or so but it is still in use quite a bit around here. We don't have the erosion problems that many places do.


----------



## mlappin (Jun 25, 2009)

We can have major erosion problems depending on the weather. WE have some ground thats been no-till now for 8 years and still have some minor erosion problems, most of that though is caused by 3" downpours. May be planting more grass waterways.

Came home the other night from a fish dinner and the bean ground that one guy had fall chiseled was blowing across the road into the ditch on the other side.


----------



## Teslan (Aug 20, 2011)

mlappin said:


> We can have major erosion problems depending on the weather. WE have some ground thats been no-till now for 8 years and still have some minor erosion problems, most of that though is caused by 3" downpours. May be planting more grass waterways.
> 
> Came home the other night from a fish dinner and the bean ground that one guy had fall chiseled was blowing across the road into the ditch on the other side.


Yes you have to do the tilling at the right time. I don't think fall is really the right time because it can just blow away over the winter. At least here anyways.


----------



## Bonfire (Oct 21, 2012)

mlappin said:


> Came home the other night from a fish dinner and the bean ground that one guy had fall chiseled was blowing across the road into the ditch on the other side.


Had that ground been rained on?


----------



## mlappin (Jun 25, 2009)

Teslan said:


> Yes you have to do the tilling at the right time. I don't think fall is really the right time because it can just blow away over the winter. At least here anyways.


We never fall chiseled because of wind erosion and then with heavy melts in the spring, gullies are the result.



Bonfire said:


> Had that ground been rained on?


Yep, rain and a little snow yesterday but the wind was strong enough to dry the top out enough to blow. Over around amish country I've seen them plow the muck in the fall then you'd have muck drifts across the road instead of snow drifts.


----------



## endrow (Dec 15, 2011)

We have been 100% notill for 20 years and there are some fields on the home farm have not seen tillage for 35 years . Cover crops are the ticket.


----------



## mlappin (Jun 25, 2009)

We flew on a three way mix of rye, groundhog radish and crimson clover this year. Radish are doing really well on the bean ground, not so good in the corn. Still seriously thinking of buying a high boy, remove the boom and go with a Gandy seeder and an air boom and covering the ground ourselves about the time the corn is four foot high or so.

For what it costs to have it flown on, in about three years a pretty nice high boy would be paid for. Of course this year it was so wet, even if we had the high boy, still might of had to have it flown on.


----------



## Bgriffin856 (Nov 13, 2013)

I wouldnt mind no tilling but our clay ground gets hard and im kind of skeptical about it. From what I have seen around here is when it gets dry no tilled corn does very poor. Not sure of beans. Neighbor has a notill great plains drill but still does full tillage


----------



## mlappin (Jun 25, 2009)

Bgriffin856 said:


> I wouldnt mind no tilling but our clay ground gets hard and im kind of skeptical about it. From what I have seen around here is when it gets dry no tilled corn does very poor. Not sure of beans. Neighbor has a notill great plains drill but still does full tillage


We used to say the same thing about the home farm and some of the heavier ground in the area, used to only no-till the sand and the lighter clays. Been no-tilling the home farm going on 8 years now and it only seems to get better every year. Reduced runoff and ponding are the first things you really notice. Cover crops also play a big role in no-tilling successfully. Like I said before, the only ground we do tillage on now is the 35 acres the beef cows over winter on.


----------



## aawhite (Jan 16, 2012)

We quit plowing in the early '90's, even on our heavy clay gumbo bottom ground. Took a 15' JD disc chisel, re-arranged some of the points, and added 4 DMI ripper teeth on the back. We would rip the bottom ground 18" deep or more in the fall after manure. We've ripped as deep as 24" if we could get traction. If we couldn't rip in the fall we would chisel or off-set disc the ground in the spring. We had bottom ground in continuous corn for over 20 years that raised 200-250 bu, corn year in year by the early 90's. Had a 20 acres field go 300 bu. dry land in '94 or '95. This was SE Iowa. We figured the plow pan we created was hurting yields for years. No-till was not an option in those heavy soils.

When tearing up sod we would off-set disc.


----------



## Grateful11 (Apr 5, 2009)

There's still full on tillage going on here. Main reason, wife and son just prefer not to use anymore chemicals they have too. Usually start with a 11' Amco F-17 heavy double offset bog harrow, then a CIH 475 14' tandem disc. There's a IH Plow here with 4 - 16's but none of us know how to even start to set it up, FIL took that with him to the grave. As deep as the Amco goes, if the ground is right, not sure there's a need to plow.

Wife with the Amco






and the 475


----------



## Supa Dexta (May 28, 2014)

If you ever wanna dig that plough out and give it a shot I'm sure we can get ya turning over some ground in short order.


----------



## Grateful11 (Apr 5, 2009)

Supa Dexta said:


> If you ever wanna dig that plough out and give it a shot I'm sure we can get ya turning over some ground in short order.


Might just do that sometime. I helped my son drag it out of what used to be a chicken coup, with no floor left, earlier this year as the chicken coup is ready to fall in on itself. It was sitting upright but in dried mud about an 1" deep. We moved with forks on a frontend loader onto 2 pallets in a drier shed. We found what appears to be new landslides and points for that my FIL bought long before he passed away. I've got some photos of in my main computer, I'll try and post them. It's a bit of a strange bird as it doesn't appear to have spring trips or coulters on it but does have a small cast wheel at the rear.


----------



## mlappin (Jun 25, 2009)

Grateful11 said:


> There's still full on tillage going on here. Main reason, wife and son just prefer not to use anymore chemicals they have too.


Well, as hard as it may be to believe, with no-till and cover crops, we are actually using less than we used to. Not sure why, but if you get a good stand of rye, usually seems pretty weed free the next spring, throw some tillage radish and crimson clover into the mix as well.

Several times in the past we didn't even do a burndown, planted the corn right into the standing rye and then applied the residual, Surestart plus atrazine was enough to burn the rye down, 10 gallon/acre of straight 28% probably helped wipe the rye out as well.

Ryegrass however is a totally different beast.


----------

