# Deep Plowing



## Hugh (Sep 23, 2013)

The opposite of no-till. Deep plowing is good to break-up a hard pan. You just need plenty of power and a big mold board, like 12-15 feet high?


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## hog987 (Apr 5, 2011)

So what is the purpose of that type of plowing??


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## slowzuki (Mar 8, 2011)

Usually to bury sand or bring sand up to mix with clay.


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## deadmoose (Oct 30, 2011)

I thought thats how everybody plowed. 

I wanna see their disk.


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## Lewis Ranch (Jul 15, 2013)

I'm scared to know how many GPH on the one bottom..


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## IHCman (Aug 27, 2011)

Some of the old timers around here would leave a dead furrow when they were done plowing. I'd hate to run over the dead furrow left by that plow.

Seems like a waste of good topsoil to bury it like that.


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## mlappin (Jun 25, 2009)

Waste of time and fuel, compaction can go a lot deeper than that.

Try some tillage radish instead of destroying whats left of the soil structure.

The great plains didn't get all those feet of top soil from tillage.


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## Hugh (Sep 23, 2013)

hog987 said:


> So what is the purpose of that type of plowing??


If you look closely in the ditch, you will see layers, some black, some lighter in color. One of these layers is probably made of very fine particles that block water movement downwards, a "hard pan." Breaking this up will give better drainage, and a crop will then not drown in standing water. I think this is in Germany and I'm betting these guys know exactly what they are doing. No "hobby farm" here.


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## sethd11 (Jan 1, 2012)

I thought I read an article on this before. Hugh is right. They are breaking up swamp ground or something so water can get through it, Otherwise its a swamp for the rest of the year. Anyone who has money to hook 4 dozers together to plow for days on end knows what they are doing.


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## rjmoses (Apr 4, 2010)

sethd11 said:


> Anyone who has money to hook 4 dozers together to plow for days on end knows what they are doing.


Or doesn't know what they're doing!

Ralph


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## Hugh (Sep 23, 2013)

Another video showing a 6 foot plow being pulled by 4 D8 cats. Google "deep plowing" and you will find several studies showing the benefits.


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## mlappin (Jun 25, 2009)

Must be a unique situation that would benefit from this, around here you plow that deep and kiss tiles good bye and you'd be bring up a lot of yellow or blue subsoil, that or a lot of gravel on the lighter ground.


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## Hugh (Sep 23, 2013)

Some soils are stratified. These layers can impede water and root penetration. I grew up in Florida and on our property we had loose sand for about a foot and then a hardpan that would not let water through it. When digging with a shovel, it would be very easy until you hit the hardpan, and then it was like digging in steel. The shovel would just ring like a bell when you stabbed at it, and if you were strong, you might knock loose a small chip of this stuff. Over millions of years these fine particles bind together and create a cap on otherwise deep soil. This is also bad for the earthworms and beneficial microbes, in that they will drown in heavy rains and not be able to get down to moisture in the dry season. "No plowing" is an environmentalist ruse in my opinion. Study after study has shown plowing and deep plowing is a very good thing to do, in some soils. In some places in the world, no deep plowing means no farming. We don't see it every day because sometimes it only needs to be done once, and this effect can last for years or decades.


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## Supa Dexta (May 28, 2014)

Do that here and you'll likely hook a rock half the size of a dozer.


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## PackMan2170 (Oct 6, 2014)

Do they do custom work? I have 35 acres of clay I need them to bury.......


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## mlappin (Jun 25, 2009)

PackMan2170 said:


> Do they do custom work? I have 35 acres of clay I need them to bury.......


Here if you try to bury the "clay" you'll just bring stuff up thats even more unsuitable to farm.


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## PackMan2170 (Oct 6, 2014)

This stuff is pretty much unsuitable already. First year stand of hay and I've already drowned like 2.5 acres of it. Of course, getting 3 inches of rain the day after I irrigated fried the majority of that.....

And the back field at the same farm is a SANDBOX. I have to water it twice as frequently as the front. I can literally flood 4" of water on it and drive the swather across it, not the next day, but the day after that


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## hog987 (Apr 5, 2011)

PackMan2170 said:


> This stuff is pretty much unsuitable already. First year stand of hay and I've already drowned like 2.5 acres of it. Of course, getting 3 inches of rain the day after I irrigated fried the majority of that.....
> 
> And the back field at the same farm is a SANDBOX. I have to water it twice as frequently as the front. I can literally flood 4" of water on it and drive the swather across it, not the next day, but the day after that


It takes some work but why dont you take some clay and put it on the sand and take some sand it put it on the clay. I started doing this on my new land in my spare time. It will take a few years to finish but it worth it.


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## PackMan2170 (Oct 6, 2014)

The farm I am refering to is a lease farm, and my landlord is so tight that he squeaks. He won't do anything about it, and I'm not gonna keep it long enough to make it worth my while. Just wait til better ground becomes available and dump it.

We have done a considerable amount of the work you are talking about on the ground we own. Plating sand with clay and trying to add drainage to clay. The soil around here can be highly variable (as aforementioned), since we are in a river valley. Thankfully, the majority of what I farm is pretty tolerable.


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## mlappin (Jun 25, 2009)

What i was referring to here at home is if you ran one of those plows here, you'd be burying topsoil which only runs 12-14" deep and bringing up some very sticky yellow clay or even some blue clay.

If you tried it just south of us you might bring up some gravel which would help somewhat with drainage, but again kiss you're tiles goodbye. We still find clay tiles on the home farm that Dad or Grandfather never knew were there.


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## PackMan2170 (Oct 6, 2014)

Yeah, it amazes me that you guys can make anything on that same 12-14" of top soil year in and year out. We have deep soil here, but like I said, HIGHLY variable.

Everything's a trade off, huh?


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## PackMan2170 (Oct 6, 2014)

Well, to be fair, for the most part we really use the same 12-14" topsoil year in and year out too, but we frequently do deep tillage. We regularly run a ripper 20-30 inches deep, depending on conditions.

There is actually a guy up the road that has a 3 shank 45" ripper that he pulls with a Deere 9560RT. He doesn't use it on every field every year, but he does use it. And the guy is a good farmer.


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## FarmerCline (Oct 12, 2011)

If you plowed that deep here you would probably hit solid rock.....not to mention ruining the land for growing anything by pulling up our poor subsoil.


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## mlappin (Jun 25, 2009)

FarmerCline said:


> If you plowed that deep here you would probably hit solid rock.....not to mention ruining the land for growing anything by pulling up our poor subsoil.


Ditto here. That and the rocks you'd get to pick up after.


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## Ray 54 (Aug 2, 2014)

Some of the deep tillage has been done ever since there have been tractors big enough to pull that big a plow.But saying some one has the money to pay for the job is not the same as knowing what you are doing.Lots of hobby farming in the US ,some by people that have experience from some part of there life ,a lot by some one without a clue.


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## robert23239 (May 10, 2009)

I am in north catolina and have taken on land that has been hay ground for years . I plowed up a few acres and is doing wel, ground I didnt doesn't do as well and mostly growing oats and orchard grass. Have another 50 acres that I put on beans just chiseled and planted, than rye grass in fall. Still in places the soil is very tough . If no till works than that hay ground is messed up from compaction ? Keep thinking it needs to be plowed one time.


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