how to plow standing corn

We grew 1/2 A of corn for our pigs and chickens and the occasional corn bread.
How do I plow this? I tried and it didn't. especially were it had been knocked over. So I disced it, with the rows and across the rows. Do you think it will soften up over the winter and under the snow so I can plow it next spring?

Thanks

Dave Rogers south of the Quebec border by 60 miles

Disc it first.

Did the plow plug up with stalks. Was the ground very dry or very wet, did the plow not enter the ground?

What was the problem?

Paul

I have had problems plowing under corn stalks. I have tried Bush hogging them down before plowing, discing them down in the direction I was going to plow.

I have a set of 12" MF plows and there just is not enough throat area so they plug up with stalks.

The best results I have had plowing down corn stalks was using my old MF disc plows, they will turn over most anything and keep going.

I guess the big farmers of today have large disc or machines that do not get plugged with stalks.

If we plan on plowing corn stalks under we give them a once over with our JD 1640 plowing disc. Even then it will plug the plow once and a while. I prefer to use one of oliver 16" auto reset plows without coulters. Our 5-16 or 6-18 with coulters will plug faster. Best results we've had is to disc after harvest in the fall and plow in the spring after they rot down a bit during the winter.

I disk stalks 2 times at 30* or so to the row.Oppisite directions(a big 'X' pattern).Then plow.Sure a stalk sticks up once in a while and it plugs once in a while.That's normal.I dont use coulters,either.In fact,no one here does.

I was never able to plow stalks without plugging at times. I used to bushog them, then disc them, and then plow. And they still plugged at times, even with a high clearance plow with an open throat. Now, we just bushhog, and maybe disc, but leave the trash on the surface and no-til tillage radishes and crimson clover into it. Then we burn it off in the spring and no-til into the mulch.

IF you have a good fence besides some pigs- turn pigs into the field and let them chew and dig a bit. Corm stalk choppers used to be used in Iowa on heavy stalked field after picking- vertical shaft flails or a horizontal shaft with flex L blades driven by PTO- did a fair job of taking 6 to 8 foot stalks and turning them into 6 to 8 inch long bits and pieces for winter cover then spring plow- I used to do this with IHC H then a 560 when father got it. For some gardeners with sweet corn- the corn knives and hand bundle the cut stalks to use for compost, ground cover, goat, cow, hog feed or even some horse chews. Some people still have the 2 to 4 disc plows- 16 to 30 inch diameter heavy disk blades at fixed angle in frame for 3pt or a pull frame from 1930s designs- and use them for gardens, good for stony ground and heavy trash fields, need 25 to 50 hp to pull. These are the 'early' disc plows now having 12 to 20 disks and needing 150+ hp 4 wheel drives with double duals (sisters current JD 8nnn something) or a tracked puller. Dearborn made a 2 disc 3pt unit for Ford Ns in late 1940s, IHC had then along with Case in 1930s in the pull frames. Some Wisconsin use in cleared timber ground- didn't hang on roots and stumps like a moldboard plow, got enough ground stirred for broadcast of oats as nurse crop for next years clover/hay or pasture ground. A few of them are seen doing community garden work in late fall, sometimes after first snow- they'll turn under corn stalks and leftover garden stakes for tomato plants, chicken wire bean supports. 1/2 acre- get a Harbor Freight $9.95 machete and do 1/2 hour of chopping and gathering in morning- consider 4 foot fencing and letting piggies do some ground clearing until ground freezes like used to be common practice prewar in Tennessee, or range states before fence laws. <---Mild Teasing Alert! and still common enough among Amish. multiple disc pass with what disk and tractor? Do inline row, then diagonal twice in X, then cross rows and let set over winter- about best with what equipment you seem to have. RN.

I never plowed much down... did a couple acres once... but with a long frame plow like the more modern European stuff such as Kverneland... you can just drive the stalks down and bury them. They clear right through the plow.

Rod

Is it an option to turn your pigs into the stalks? That would do it.

RN,

I did some row crop farming when I lived in Minnesota a long time ago. I had a stalk chopper like you described with a horizontal shaft and hanging L-shaped choppers on it. It did a very good job of shredding the stalks.

I'd plow as much as I could in the fall after the corn was picked and, to a great extent, the chopped stalks plowed under very well.

Tom in TN

Best thing I ever used with a flail mower a friend of mine had. I've brush hogged and disked but the flail mower worked best.

I don't think you can plow standing corn or at least iv never seen it done that way. if it were mine I would bushhog it or disc it with a heavy disc. We had to turn in a small field a few years back during the drought. we disc it in aug then chisled it in November. neighbor had to plow down 160 acres for insurance during the drought. He bush hogged it then mold board plow. and yes the stalks will break down more over winter

(quoted from post at 11:00:54 10/30/14) We grew 1/2 A of corn for our pigs and chickens and the occasional corn bread.
How do I plow this? I tried and it didn't. especially were it had been knocked over. So I disced it, with the rows and across the rows. Do you think it will soften up over the winter and under the snow so I can plow it next spring?

Thanks

Dave Rogers south of the Quebec border by 60 miles

Click to expand...

I am one of them that use a disc plow. I didnt get to pick last years corn until the spring of this year. I ran the disc over it and then got out my Ferguson disc plow. Never plugged once. If you can find one to borrow that is the way to go for plowing it when there is a lot of stalks and your like me and have no stalk chopper or anything. Sorry for the quality...it was getting dark and I was using my phone to video it while plowing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tGkgg9sfbrw

Assuming it is plugging up with stalks as others are guessing;

For many years we plowed down harvest stalks. It can be a challenge.

Wide row (38 inch) corn was easier.

A modern plow, IHC 720, etc with high clearance is needed.

Good big coulters on it, adjusted right.

Still it will plug at times.

Driving with the combine in the same direction as the plow will go helped a whole lot.

Damp stalk in early morning dew or dusk were terrible for plugging. Then again a light drizzle one day and never plugged once in that!

A disking often helps, but has made things worse at times - the loose stalks are now free to float around and pile up if the disk didnt cut them small enough to flow through. Multiple dis kings can help then, but the ground gets soft on top, and the coulters won't work as well and so ther are everlasting problems....

Peat or muck ground is terrible to get through, the stalks just pile up in the plow. Terrible.

A stalk chopper - a flair chopper - is the go to tool these days to grind up the stalks small enough to flow through the plow. A rotary bush hog will do it as well.

Paul

With no coulters was just asking for trouble, never would work here.

You did not say what you have for a tractor..

You only have 1/2 acre..that is not much.

Any Decent 14" plow ( WITH Coulters and NO Rust) will plow that piece.
It may plug a couple times, but that is Normal.
If yours is a smaller tractor with 2x14", your rear tire will progressively mash the corn down as you make round after round.
Sometimes cutting corn with a Bush Hog seems to fluff it up and it plugs worse.
If the corn stalks are fairly dry, the Coulters will cut them pretty well(if they are set to run about 3 1/2" deep.
Steer clear of any 12" plow, they plug endlessly in corn.

The first row plowed fine till I hit knocked down
corn going cross ways.

I will disc in a X next and try again without the
coulters on the Ford 101 plow.

Thanks for all the answers. I love old iron.

Tractors are Fords--8N, 3000, 4000, 2 Farmall Super As, and a J.I. Case 311, we planted the
corn with a Farquhar 2 row planer spaced at 36"

And maybe I will have to wait till spring to plow.

Dave Rogers

Paul,

It plowed fine till I hit stalks knocked down going
crossways and I had coulters on the Ford 101 plows.
and I will take them off next time.

Ground was just fine for plowing. except for being very stony.

I love the old Iron. I have Fords--8N, 3000, 4000; 2 Farmall Super A, and a J.I. Case 311.
The Corn went in with a old 2 row corn planter
made by Farquhar.

The Corn was Early Riser created by 5 varieties
of Dent and Flint corns. and supposed to be 85 day.

Thanks for all the replies.

Dave Rogers

I agree on plow size, I keep looking for a used set of 2x16" plows. They are a little hard to find, but you do see a set from time to time.

Maybe this winter I will run up on a set, my neighbor has a set of Ford 101 14" plows I can borrow anytime I what.

When my 1/2 acre row crop garden is done for the summer I run the shredder down through it and it pretty much mulches everything. I grow corn, several different kinds of beans, melons etc. I let all that dry down then moldboard plow it all under.

We had good luck useing disk coulter on JD 4-16's plow. It cut stalk and started the ground and trash rolling just before it hit the plow.

Some of the old guys told me about using heavy#9 wire or cable or chain dragging thru to hold the stalks down so they would flow through.I used to have trouble too since i picked and was on 30 inch rows.Thought of even fixing a set of wheellike paddles or something to push the stalks down as they flowed through. It seemed to me that the stalks would flow through if they got caught by the dirt instead of floating then getting hung up on the standards.

I was surprised to see only one suggestion of covering wires.

We used a piece of #9 wire, about 8 feet long, wrapped around the
crook of the coulter shank. When plowing, the wire was taut, and
ran close to the turning soil - stalks were pressed onto the dirt and
got covered as the moldboard turned over the dirt.

i brush then and disk crossways usally works for me

No matter what I have done it always works better to wait till spring around here.
Tried discing, ran a flail over it.
Never worried about fall plowing corn ground anyway.