How to plow a field

[trucker 40]

This works if the field is square,which is the only way Ive plowed is a square field.You start out on one end of the field and plow throwing the dirt towards the edge of the field.You dont throw the dirt towards the center,you throw it to the edge,with the furrow going towards the center of the field,when you get to the other end,and if there are any rows you can see count about 50 or 75 and go back.You will be throwing dirt towards the center of the field,then go around and around,running your front tire in the furrow if you have a wide front end and your plow is set that way,and once it gets hard to turn make a new land,by going from the same end of the field another 50 rows past where you were before and finish the last few turns out by coming down the new land side and going up the old land side until you have a dead furrow,and then you go back to going around the new land,repeat until you get all the way across.If you somehow get crooked then you have to plow out the dead furrow to where you have just one furrow.
I cant help you on terraces but it gets more complicated there.You plow the terrace and work inside between the terraces and not across the terraces,is about all I know about it.
So9me people like to go across the rows,but it can get rough that way especially if the combine cut ruts.Some people like to go at an angle with a chisel plow.Mostly people dont plow nowdays,or if they do its with a chisel plow.If the ground has ever been plowed a lot it can help it to chisel plow it deeper than the plow went.Dirt that was plowed year after year develops something called hard pan and if you chisel plow it deep enough it will break through the hard pan which is sometimes better depending on what kind of dirt you have.
 

[James22]

Yes no-tillers, mother nature might not have a steel tillage tool, but show me her 100 ft sprayer spewing chemicals that you use instead. In general she doesn't practice mono-culture so comparing her to our farming practices isn't really that relevent. She does have earth worms and deep rooted plants which provide puesedo tillage and some plants such as rye are allelopathic that mimic a weak herbicide, so in a limited fashion she employs both.
 

[tjdub]

If you have a non-rectangular field, it pays to do some serious planning before you start. You don' t want to be driving over freshly plowed ground any more than you have to unless you like a sore neck. Take a close look to find where the dead furrow (ditch) is from the last time it was plowed. If it's in the center, start plowing in the center and fill it up with the first pass on each side. If it's on the edges, fill it up with the first pass on the outsides. If you have no dead furrow, start on the outside, you will discover where the center of the field is by where your dead furrow ends up. If the field is irregular like all mine are, try to separate the small fingers of field out and do them first if you can. Since I'm guessing this is a semi-mount plow, you can control depth on either side, so when it comes time to make your dead furrow or back furrow, plow very shallow on that side of the plow so that you don't get a deep ditch or high mound. Just scrape the sod over there.

Also, if don't already know this, DO NOT PLOW UP AND DOWN A HILL.

Finally, if these fields still have some alfalfa in them, don't try to plant alfalfa back right away. Plant an annual grass for a year first.
 

[buickanddeere]

I'll agree with the fall ploughing. It was so wet in the fall the tractor only spun in the 2" of mud on top of the hardpan. Just could not plough with a 2WD.
Of course the spring ploughing was rough without the frost to breakup the lump.And the soil fractures to allow moisture absorption.
 

[thurlow]

Have plowed thousands and THOUSANDS of acres with 3, 4 and 5 bottom 3-point hitch plows, 2 and 3 bottom drag type plows and 5 and 6 bottom semi-mount plows; glad you weren't around to advise me when I started about 1952; I'd still be trying to figure it out.........
 

[JMS/.MN]

The answer to your question depends on the size and shape of your field, and the size of your plow. You have a myriad of answers, and some are thoughtful, some make no sense to other than the sender, per his acreage. google...Operation, Care, and Repair of Farm Machinery, by John Deere. That book gives a good illustration of plowing, especially with multiple "lands". Also shows how to set up a plow behind the tractor. Chances are many folks here are farming patches of ground from one to a few acres in size, while others might have 40-80 acres in a field. The techniques are different- especially when one says to drive down one side of the field, cross over, and plow down the other. That"s fine on a little 3-sided patch of a few acres, but doesn"t fit a square 40. I use a disc chisel now but for years did moldboard plowing. I have some 80 acre fields, that is a quarter mile wide and a half mile long- they were plowed in lands. Smallest is five acres...irregular shape, was plowed in 2-3 lands. Went from 3 bottom to 6 bottom over the years, but usually made 8-10 rounds per land...but depends on the field. Some suggest no-til...that does not work everywhere- no more than moldboarding or chiseling is the answer for everyone.
 

[JMS/.MN]

I was 8 years old in"52, and remember my older brother telling Dad, when he got back from the other farm, about whether he was throwing furrows together, or plowing them out. When I got to plow a few years later, sure glad I didn"t have to follow the trucker"s current instructions. Learned early on about reversing the pattern the next year. When on my own, always liked the semi-mount for closing deadfurrows...drop the nose, raise the tailwheel, and close them up- saved a lot of time the next Spring, with the field being level.
 

[gordy from Iowa]

Buick, you forgot to say that there wasn't any oxygen getting into your soil after 20 years of notilling. LOL
 

[oldart]

do you have any old unckles or cusinsthat have retired from farming may be able to get them to help you get started maybe goto town and find a retired farmer and hire him to come and show how make friends with your neibores but don't be a pest trade your labore for some help . may your days get better oldart
 

[gordy from Iowa]

Myth number 1. Notilling requires a 100' sprayer and more chemicals. Honestly, some of you guys need to come into the 21st century.
 

[Leroy]

To counter that bowl the next year you start in the center of the field and plow in going around just the oposite direction and alternate every time you plow. Around here some plow, some chisel and some no-till and some use all three methods and I believe that is the best way to do it. When I was farming had the moldboard plows, bought a chisel and tried it (worked OK only on bean ground) quit using it and sold it and kept the moldboard plow. Usually split fields in lands but at times plowed around, either throwing in or out. For what you are wanting to do I would throw in going around. Omly one slight raise in middle of field and get rid of those raised fence rows that aculimated from too many years of just plowing apart that is the easiest way to start.
 

[paul]

Do as you were thinking.

Next year, you start on the edges of the field in the furrows - slight dips - you left this year, and fill them in, leaving a slight valley on top of the ridge you created the first year.

Do the opposite, throwing the dirt in or out, every other year.

--->Paul
 

[Negligence]

Thanks for all the input, some interesting ideas/ways to plow. Unfortunately no one in my family has farming background, but I've got some neighbors on their way out that might be able to show me a thing or two.

As for removing weeds, etc., from a field -- do you think I absolutely need a moldboard, or can I get rid of them and prep a decent seed bed for hay with just a chisel or disc, or both?

Nobody around her plows with a moldboard, looks like everyone is using chisel plows. But they are planting beans/corn, not sure if that factors into the choice of plow.
 

[MeanGene1]

My gramps had it down pretty good, he had me paint a white stripe on he inside of the left rear tire, measured the circumference of the tire, and related it to the width of a plow pass. If it was a field he hadn't plowed before, he'd count the wheel revolutions at one end, put up a couple makers, do the same at the other headland, lay out all the lands before he started. He'd take notes in a pocket pad when he was done, measuring it with wheel revs again, come back the next year and start "wheeling", he'd stop, and sure enough, you'd look across and there'd be the dead furrow or back furrow, mark 'n plow. Pretty amazing guy, he had the IH dealership, trucking and lime spreading/fertilizer/nitrogen spraying company, several farms and did custom combining for others, and sold heating coal in the winter to keep his guys busy. Used deuce-and-a-halfs for lime spreaders and could be in the fields while there were still snowdrifts around the edges. He and my great-uncle worked through a couple depression-era years cutting firewood for the railroad, hand axes and a cross-cut saw, four cord a day at $.50 a cord, delivered and stacked at the train station. Later on, he bought the station and rail siding property and it became our main lime stockpile, fertilizer and liquid nitrogen storage, and rented part of it to Agway for their fuel storage substation. He was always a little ashamed that they wouldn't let him enlist during WWII because of his agricultural businesses supporting the farmers, didn't like to talk about it. He was also the president of the school board for 20 years, kind of amazing in itself as he never finished high school...
 

[Goose]

I'm glad I didn't know all of this all of the years I spent in front of a plow.