There are at least three parts to the answer. 1. The soil below the depth of the plow is slightly compacted on every trip over the field. Plowing loosens the soil above the "Plow Layer" but the soil below that layer can be compacted to the point that water has difficulty passing trough leading to wet spots in flat areas. This is especially true in areas with low spots that tend to fill as a result of leveling and plowing. Others have mentioned this possibility. 2. The soil disked or pulverized has no "Structure" due to plowing and the fill zone becomes rather cemented and impervious to water transport. Disk and tillers have a reputation for being excessively good destroyers of "Structure" due to flailing and mixing. (Structure is defined as the tendency of clay and silty soils to form larger particle clumps like earth worm pills that allows voids and channels to form for water transport. Sandy soils have a natural "Structure". Earth worms, roots, freeze/thaw cycles, and wet/dry-shrink/swell cracks create structure.) Disk and tillers break down that structure by destroying the particle clumps. Structure will reform over time but it takes time and we are talking decades left undisturbed. Sub-soilers if used in rather dry conditions can break up the plow layer allowing the rainwater to pass through. 3. Cultivated areas that were disked or tilled and then placed in grass or pasture may need periodic sub-soiler or chisel plow attention to reduce compaction and impervious conditions. The earlier disking and tilling tended to destroy structure in the upper zones and additional plowing is not always a part of grass or pasture maintenance. Large amounts of organic manure will improve soil structure by increasing earth worm activity and shrink/swell tendencies but reapplication is needed especially in warmer areas.
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Today's Featured Article - A Lifetime of David Brown - by Samuel Kennedy. I was born in 1950 and reared on my family’s 100 acre farm. It was a fairly typical Northern Ireland farm where the main enterprise was dairying but some pigs, poultry and sheep were also kept. Potatoes were grown for sale and oats were grown to be used for cattle and horse feeding. Up to about 1958 the dairy cows were fed hay with some turnips and after that grass silage was the main winter feed. That same year was the last in which flax was grown on the farm. Flax provided the fibre which w
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