# To plough or not to plough



## KJB

With all the talk on here about no till, how do you all keep your fields flat ?? Between pocket gophers and haying its hard to stay in the tractor seat ! I bought this farm six years ago and have now started to plough a few acres every year to try and get it smooth again, which leads me to ,how do you get your fields back to a smooth seed bed ?? I am new to this part, I have fed hay for years but only grown it for the past six.


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## Vol

Plenty of folks still plow.....and for your reason in particular. It is just not good stewardship to do so on a annual basis for most folks if they are equipped to no till. Besides, it is usually much faster and cost effective to no till. BUT, plowing still has its place....periodically.

Regards, Mike.


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## mlappin

For leveling a good chisel plow and field cultivator with wide sweeps work better than plowing, also doesn't destroy soil structure as much. Far as no tilling, you have to start with a smooth seed bed. We even bought our own knives for the anhydrous bar we used to rent from the co-op, got the knives with the least soil disturbance. Wasn't happy with that either, so built our own 28% bar using no-till coulters off a great plains drill.

Don't have pocket gophers here.

Far as a plow having its place, usually cut up as scrap is how I prefer plows.


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## KJB

Thanks for the input, now after you plow what steps do you follow ? Last year I ploughed then used a finishing disc which sunk down and brought up all the sod, made a mess. So this year I bought a cultimuncher, its not sinking but its not leveling very well either... What do you do ?? Thanks Ken By the way I am hoping to only plow each piece approx. every 7 years


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## Vol

Does your cultimulcher have shanks?

Regards, Mike


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## Teslan

Do you have a packer that is dragged behind the plow? That's what nearly everyone does here if they plow. But then a cultimultcher is usually used. They don't level very well. I just go over and over it again. We have a giant land plane. Something like this http://allenmfgco.com/Land-Planes.php. It works very well. But there cannot be any crop residue. So it works good after plowing. Since we don't really plow we hadn't used our land plane for years until this spring.


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## snowball

Plow your field.. then run your disk over the plowed ground.. yes it will sink in a lot and bring up some of the sod you plowed under but you just have to live with that.. after you disk it and get it level maybe you have to disk twice to get it level let the sun beat on it for a day or 2.... untill it's pretty dry... then run the dog crap out a culitpacker over it to firm it up and seal what is left of your moisture then plant your crop... you could try a field cultivator instead of a disk but there is a good chance you will work every bit of moisture out of your ground ...


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## IH 1586

If I am turning sod back into sod, Plow, disk 2 times once length wise then straight across, Drag 2 times straight across then length wise, cultimulcher no teeth, plant, cultimulcher


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## Hugh

My neighbor has a "leverer." This thing must be 75 years old (could be a 100) and is very long, maybe 20 feet. He ran it over one of my fields and I could nearly play pool on it. It has a blade in the center and the blade stays full of soil and distributes it evenly. I was amazed...


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## Teslan

That sounds like what our land plane is. But our land plane is about 50 feet long and 15 wide or so


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## snowball

Teslan said:


> That sounds like what our land plane is. But our land plane is about 50 feet long and 15 wide or so


call me stupid I have seen them in adds over the yrs... but why do you need to use them ? Just have always though a person can it it level enough with a disk or field cultivator I've seen them used alot in Ne. why does a dry land field need to be that level ?


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## Teslan

snowball said:


> call me stupid I have seen them in adds over the yrs... but why do you need to use them ? Just have always though a person can it it level enough with a disk or field cultivator I've seen them used alot in Ne. why does a dry land field need to be that level ?


A dryland field for like wheat doesn't, but it's nice to have a smooth field for haying. And here there isn't any dryland fields in hay. It does it better then a disc or cultimultcher. Also for flood irrigation it is quite important to not have any high spots in a field.


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## snowball

the levelers I've seen look like they would make a field level enough to shoot pool on it they must pull a lttle hard cause I see some good size tractors on them


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## KJB

Yes Mike my cultimuncher has shanks, I was just out on the tractor towing it around with then down, made a heck of a mess, sod everywhere and its still not at all smooth. This is worse than last year when I disced after plowing! I was hoping to make the field better not worse.


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## snowball

KJB said:


> Yes Mike my cultimuncher has shanks, I was just out on the tractor towing it around with then down, made a heck of a mess, sod everywhere and its still not at all smooth. This is worse than last year when I disced after plowing! I was hoping to make the field better not worse.


KJB.. the trick is let the sod clumps get gun powder dry after you bring them up.. them work the dog crap out of them with the cultimulcher 1586 made a good post a culitmulcher and harrow will be your best friends..


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## Teslan

Maybe next time disc the sod before plowing? The opposite way that you will plow?


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## snowball

JMO but when ever I needed to fix a sod field to smooth it up... I just burn it down put it to corn or beans for a yr then either disk chisel or plow it and work the ground down to the condition it is need to seed and harrow the dog shit out of it after I seed.. I hate fight'n sod balls and never could get grass on grass to grow.. just me though....Plowed many a sod field in my youth on a IH 560 and 4 bottom plow.. and would wear out a good disk beat'n sod balls to death


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## snowball

They "claim" those Phoenix or Phillips rolling harrows work great for what you are doing KGB.. if you can find one I'am sure they would make you a deal.. I tried 1 once .. didn't much like it ... now the" latest and greatest" idea here are the big 4' tall 40' wide rollers.... Ya.. can you spell "Soil Compaction" that's just what I want more of


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## panhandle9400

snowball said:


> the levelers I've seen look like they would make a field level enough to shoot pool on it they must pull a lttle hard cause I see some good size tractors on them


I have a Namco ? it is 40' wide, it makes short order in smoothing out rough fields, but it must be pretty clean to start with . It requires big HP to handle it if your pulling much dirt .


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## Orchard6

http://www.umequip.com/tillage/seedbed/perfecta/

We use one of these for leveling and preparing a good seed bed. It works pretty good but you'll have to chop up your grass balls with a disc before you use it.


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## endrow

And why not just let those sod balls down there where they belong . We did not plow since 1979 but I still remember those days . also not only will the harrow teeth pull up sod balls but on our farm it will pull up rocks . I can remember as a kid picking up stones and throwing them on a flat bed taking the flat bed to a wash out then throwing the stones in the gulley . Pap said for every day you plow you will pick up stones 3. .When I the farm over years ago the one neighbor he would howl . they would not even be half done picking stones and we would notill and spray and be done weeks before them . He said those bastards are to lazy to pick up stones so they just farm half assed . Now everyone notills.......... I say I will never till again but maybe some day I will . I am sure I will never do deep tillage again like neighbor said Im to lazy to pick rocks . Serious ly If you must till to level or incorporate every 7 years rent a Salford unit that is what many do in this area


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## snowball

endrow said:


> And why not just let those sod balls down there where they belong . We did not plow since 1979 but I still remember those days . also not only will the harrow teeth pull up sod balls but on our farm it will pull up rocks . I can remember as a kid picking up stones and throwing them on a flat bed taking the flat bed to a wash out then throwing the stones in the gulley . Pap said for every day you plow you will pick up stones 3. .When I the farm over years ago the one neighbor he would howl . they would not even be half done picking stones and we would notill and spray and be done weeks before them . He said those bastards are to lazy to pick up stones so they just farm half assed . Now everyone notills.......... I say I will never till again but maybe some day I will . I am sure I will never do deep tillage again like neighbor said Im to lazy to pick rocks . Serious ly If you must till to level or incorporate every 7 years rent a Salford unit that is what many do in this area


Where I grew up Endrow we didn't have rocks .. this was in the late 60s and 70s... our ratio was 4 X1 4 days days of beat'n sod balls up for every 1 day of sod bust'n.... It was My dad's method of birth control @ the request of some parents in the 3 surrounding townships... after 12 hrs fight'n sod balls and 3 hrs of chores I was to tried and sore to chase girls when spring fever hit me..


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## KJB

Thanks for all the input,I disced the field 2 directions on Saturday and will start cultimunching this evening, Monday, so far it looks ok. If all goes well I will mole plow tomorrow morning and seed in the evening, then I just need some rain. Luckly I don't have rocks to contend with and my girl chasing days are long gone....LOL


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## Orchard6

I guess I'm confused. Are you discing then plowing with a mold board plow? If so that will make for one rough field unless you disc it again.


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## Grateful11

How do you tell if a plow point or landslide is worn beyond it's limit? The only turning plow I've ever used was a single 12" behind a Sears garden tractor as a kid. There's old IH 4 -16 plow here and we found a bunch of points and what looks like landslides that my late FIL bought along time ago.


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## snowball

Grateful11 said:


> How do you tell if a plow point or landslide is worn beyond it's limit? The only turning plow I've ever used was a single 12" behind a Sears garden tractor as a kid. There's old IH 4 -16 plow here and we found a bunch of points and what looks like landslides that my late FIL bought along time ago.


Well Grateful, It is easyer for me to look at one then tell ya .. but the landslide will wear thin towards the bottom first we used to run them untill they were razor tin which was way beyond the replacement time.. the points well they will almost tell ya when they need replaced when the point is rounded and wore back and the plow doesn't really want to suck into the ground .. they are shot...But our ground was flat and black unless it was gun powder dry we would run them untill they would almost fall off..for us a general rule was about 150 to 200 ac. that was on a 5 bottom 18" plow our 4 bottom 16" if we got close to 100 ac we did very well with them. is when they should have been replaced our ground was very tight and sticky . it is refereed to a black gumbo


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## IH 1586

Grateful11 said:


> How do you tell if a plow point or landslide is worn beyond it's limit? The only turning plow I've ever used was a single 12" behind a Sears garden tractor as a kid. There's old IH 4 -16 plow here and we found a bunch of points and what looks like landslides that my late FIL bought along time ago.


On my JD 2000 plows I will run the landslides until they are flush with the bottom of the frog and the points I judge how much they are wearing on the bottom of the bolts that attach them.


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## KJB

No, I am plowing with a burrow builder to try to eliminate those nasty pocket gophers,then cultipack then seed.


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## Orchard6

Oh! Ok. Around here for some reason people call mold board plows mole board plows or mo boards so that's where I got confused!


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