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A plow plows well when it is bright & shiny & very smooth. Any rust or paint & the dirt will stick to it & you will get red with all the words you have to say about 'that' plow..... Damp clay soil is tough with a rusty bottom, and you shouldn't grind the rust off - you leave grind marks that are just as bad. Going through sand or gravel helps, but on 8 acres you probably don't have a choice. Anyhow if the plow doesn't scour (let dirt flow) it might be a rust issue..... Best bet is to start with a rectangular field & drive down one long side, throwing the dirt to the outer edge of the field. Pick up the plow at the far end, drive across the short end not plowing, put the plow down again, & plow down that long side of the field. Continue in these 'rounds', plowing up one side, back down the other side. This will leave you headlands, or an unplowed strip on each end of the field, plow those last - kinda tougher going but you will get it. You will also have a furrow, or dip, down the middle of your field where the 2 plow furrows met. Try to keep that shallow. Next year you can start in the middle of the field plowing, and throw the dirt into the middle of the field, ending up done when you get to the 2 sides. That will kinda level out the dip & the bumps you create with the first year of plowing. Always alternate from year to year. To set the plow, the first round you make with the plow level. The first round is always difficult, it gets easier.... If the plowing is poor, sometimes that's just how the first round goes. Once you have a furrow to follow it gets easier. You need to move the plow frame - or your tractor wheels - to make it line up so with your tractor wheels in the furrow, the first bottom is cutting a full width, but not more or less than that. Also you need to move the right side of the plow up about 6 inches (or however deep your furrow is) so with the tractor at an angle, the plow is still level. You need to adjust the top link so the front & rear bottoms both plow the same depth. A little adjustment can make a big difference. Also any of the three adjustments I mentioned can affect the others.... This all sounds more difficult that it actually is, but a plowing demo or help from a neighboring old-timer would make this real easy for you to see. Wet ground will stick to your plow. Dry ground will want to break into basketball size chunks, and the plow will not want to go into the ground at all. Ditto for compacted ground - chunks, hard pulling, plow won't go down into the ground. Heavy long stemmed trash will want to plug up the plow. Don't know I would bother mowing ahead of the plow, see if the plow handles it as is. If you have a lot of peranual weeds - like Canadian thistle or the like - you might want to spray glysophate (Roundup, etc.) _at least_ 7 days before you plow & that will soak into the roots of these difficult weeds & make them far less of a problem. If you wish to get a hay crop, the mowing & seeding in very early spring (frost seeding) with no real tillage is an easier way to go if the ground is quite level - no gopher mounds etc. --->Paul
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