northerners chiseling?

[Anonymous-0]

anybody in the cornbelt or IA, IL, IN, OH, MN, MI, out plowing in the snow yet? I have relly checked the ground but I'd like to start chiseling soon on some fields.

 

[rrlund]

That only works in the fall before the ground freezes.

 

[Anonymous-0]

for your climate or everywhere? In my area several farmers chisel and moldboard from fall to March whenever the ground is fit. Ive done it myself for a few years. Frees up time in the fall and also prevents getting some of our heavy late fall and mid winter rains on the soil, if I can get it turned up in Feb or March I take it, that way its ready to go at prep time and I avoided 3-4 months of potential wash exposure.

 

[rrlund]

The ground freezes too deep up here in Michigan for that. I've know it to happen in early December with only an inch or two of frost,but not gonna happen with a foot or more.

 

[Anonymous-0]

yeah or after the 2 feet of frost thaws out in the spring!

 

[Bob Bancroft]

NO. It was so wet here all fall I didn't get an ounce of ground ripped. We had a little thaw New Years, and it hadn't changed a bit!. I have seen it where with some frost, and a little snow(which we had) after several weeks, the ground is draining underneath, then when the last frost leaves, the little moisture it was holding up goes, and conditions are good. As I said, not this time! Now we're frozen solid again with a considerable amount of snow to get rid of. I don't remember seeing the ground stay soggy for so long. Wheat planting was touchy. Fields are rutted from harvest. And this ground dries SLOWLY in the spring. grrrrrrrrrrrrr!

 

[paul]

Here in MN one is lucky if you get the tillage done before the ground freezes up hard & deep or gets covered with couple feet of snow. More likely both.

In spring the frost might come out of the ground in March, if it was a cold hard winter frost will linger into April. Two years ago we were planting corn, neighbor got stuck - he fell through 15 inches of mushy ground and spun on ice below, couldn't move.

Spring chiseling rarely is a good idea at all up here in Minnesota, and of course it is once in 20 years you can work any ground at all in December through at least 1/2 of March.

So - no, no field work going on here!!! I'm having a very hard time driving through the deep snow with round bales to feed the cows. Belly of tractor drags too deep on the hard windpacked snow.

--->Paul

 

[showcrop]

I thought that this thread was going to be about ice chiseling so the stock can get water!

 

[Brad Gyde]

If you can get the chisel plow in the ground around here right now I'll eat my hat.

Grandpa and uncle are drain tilers.. Went "probing" Tuesday.. 11 inches of frost.. Not gonna get the tool in the ground..

I inject bio-solids for a living.. On our rig, we have a 6 tooth DMI subsoiler that does the injecting.. We've been froze out since early December. Just can't keep snow on the ground to keep the frost at bay.

Brad

PS "here" is SE Lower Michigan

 

[dixon boy]

One question why?

 

[Anonymous-0]

read my post later in the discussion that sums it up for me.