Speaking of Plows......

Don't pass the orange lesson off for peanuts now that you've moved slightly north. I've already had my peanut growing lesson, from Doyle Sellars in the south. I have a file full of peanut harvesters, diggers, crop growing in field, etc.

Gosh, I sure hope you didn"t think I was making fun of Red Mist. It"s been so many years since farmers have plowed, I now find a whole generation of guys that have never pulled a plow. I did a lot of plowing in the 1950-1960 era, in that wonderful black soil of Iowa, and am now glad to pass on whatever help I can give. I notice that old plows are bringing more money the last couple years, and I hope that that old iron is being put to work. I have a "prettied up" H Farmall and a "prettied up" #8 Little Genius plow for parades and shows, but I get them dirty once or twice a year for plow days; it"s the sweetest sound to hear tractors work with plows. And the smell of that newly worked soil...it"s just like perfume. I am now working on getting 20 guys with old tractors and plows to plow up a storm in late April...spectators, whole families, come to watch, and a 4-H club sells the food. I can hardly wait!

Old Timer LA in WI.

PS: Red Mist, I hope you drop that plow in the ground this Spring!

I only ever got to plow twice, but I know that perfumefrom that and from cultivatin' in some good, deep black stuff in central Ohio. Ain't the same, but it is, and there's nothin' just like it.

I grew up farming in the 60's and 70's. Really started full time after college in 1976. This was right at the beginning of "Conservation tillage" or "NO-Till". The goal is to form a good seed bed, and get fertilizer down where the roots can feed on it. Plowing, followed by disking and harrowing did this well for decades.

But moldboard plowing is slow, fuel consuming, and leaves the soil unprotected and subject to wind and water erosion. We were loosing too much top soil. Too much to be sustainable. No till farming sought ways to place the seed in a good seedbed, yet not turn over the soil. Moldboard plows almost disappeared by the 80's. Most people in areas with hills or rolling terain have terraces to control erosion, so some of those folks kept an old moldboard plow to "plow up the terraces" every two or three years.

Some disadvantages of not plowing is that residue builds up too much, insect control is more difficult as the residue provides a place for overwintering and eggs. And with no till, cultivation is difficult, if not impossible, so you substitute cultivation with herbicides, which are petroleum based and getting more expensive by the day.

I have seen a recent resurgance of moldboard plowing. I think people who have no tilled continiously for 10-15 years are deciding that an occasional polwing is beneficial, although I have not seen any research or articles to this end.

Erosion can be contolled somewhat when moldboard plowing by plowing on the conture ( not going straight up the hill as the water will go down the furrows), or by plowing in strips and leaving unplowed areas to be plowed the next year.

I never sold my plow. We bought it and the 706 new in 1968 and I just cant bear to part with it.

hope this gives a little insight into why the plow is used.

Gene

steveormary

The moldboard width (the width of the soil that a moldboard lifts up and turns over) is measured my placing your yardstick or tape across the plow, 90 degrees from the front to back of the plow. Each moldboard has a beam running front to back, so measure from center to center on the beams and you then know your moldboard size. A 2 bottom with 14" will turn over 28" of soil with each pass...give or take an inch or two, depending on how accurately you pull the plow as it"s right wheel runs in the furrow.

The rope: As you sit on the tractor seat, you pull on the rope and let go immediately and the plow should drop down as your tractor moves forward. Same thing to raise it...your tractor has to be moving forward. The pulling of the rope can best be called a "jerk"...you don"t keep holding it towards you. Sometimes the left wheel (the "lifting and lowering wheel) will slide along as you try to lift or lower the plow...that can be remedied by using a car tire chain or a tire with greater grip, but mostly it"s a matter of increasing or loosening the tension of the two long springs running front to back at the front part of the frame by turning the big nut on the end of the bolt in the spring.

Standing at the rear of the plow and looking to the hitch, the left lever sets the depth of the whole plow. The right lever levels the plow, and this lever needs to allow the right wheel to come up high so you can start your first pass; as the wheel comes high, the moldboard goes down so it can make that first cut since it has no furrow to follow in. After the first round, you reset the right lever to allow for the furrow depth. Try plowing first about 6-8" deep, that"s enough for you to get the hang of how it all works.

Those old moldboards are not for the speed most people want to travel today....I put my H Farmall in 2nd or 3rd and the plow turns the soil over very nicely. Too fast and you just throw soil. Plowing is an "art", not a science.

The coulters (the big disk things) should run about 1/2" away from the point on the moldboard, meaning it cuts about 1/2" more soil. Make sure the axle of the coulter runs just above the soil surface.

The hitch should be aligned depending on your tractor right wheel axle width, and that"s more than I can describe here, for now.

Just get out there, drop it in the ground, put tractor in a lower gear, throttle up, and HAVE FUN!!! That"s what plowing is, a pure joy.
Oh, and keep looking back a lot to see how things are doing.

LA in WI

(Of course, I've never had to plow a hundred acres with a two-bottom plow ;)

Paul

gw