Moldboard Plow Buster Bar Question

Kerwin

Member
Just curious as to what the benefits are in using a buster bar on a moldboard plow? How much additional HP is needed for a
buster bar on a 4-bottom semi-mount? Thanks.
 
I only have one on one of my plows. But I like it on my clay because it helps close up the open pockets in the plowed ground. Keeping it from drying out all the way to the bottom of the plow furrow. As far as horse power, I thing it takes about half a bottom pull power. I have mine on a F145H 4-14s bottom behind a 4010D. So I don't notice much difference except it wants to make the plow pull to the right some.
 
I used to pull a single section harrow behind my 3 bottom rollover. I liked it,it seemed to save a trip of working ground.It pull a bit harder,but not much.However not all ground is acceptable. some of the dirt here sealed up and wuuldnt dry so we could work it
 
Got one on my 4 bottom plow. In hard clay that is fairly damp, it just sort of skips over and doesn't do much, but in looser soil, it smoothes it out behind the plow and breaks up some of the clods that come up. It came with the plow our else I probably wouldn't worry about it.

Never really noticed a difference in how it pulled.

Donovan from Wisconsin
 
Never used one, didn't see many around here, we have wet clay and it would either bounce over the wet lumps or smear and not really do much good.

As well we typically plow in fall here, over winter mellows the lumps don't need to work them down right away. The rough lumps are better erosion control than making smooth soil in fall.

In looser soil if you have time for spring plowing it would save a trip with a harrow or disk, by smoothing out and busting up a few of the bigger lumps, make it easier with the next trip across the field.

Can't see it taking very much hp.

Paul
 
Never heard of plowing ground for erosion control. Thought it would be the exact opposite.
 
Here, they were only used for spring plowing. My uncle tells me you absolutely needed a buster bar or to pull a drag section behind a plow when spring plowing because you needed to break down the lumps immediately before they would dry out. If you didn't pull something behind the plow to break down the lumps, you would need to make a second pass with something within hours of plowing. Grandpa would spring plow with his MD 10-20 for two-three hours, unhook the plow, hook up the drag, and work down the lumps, and repeat. For fall plowing the rougher the better to keep the soil from blowing over the winter.
 
In other parts of the country folk get excited about moldboard plowing.

We have rolling hills, but they are not usually long, anyhow not steep and long. Go up and down 3-5 hills in a round. I have a 25 acre field with 14 little peaks in it

Water will wash down the hills, but it diesnt go far enough to gather speed or volume.

If you plow the ground, it is lumpy. Little hills and dips. Rain has to cascade from one dip to the next, and becomes a slow meandering path down the hill, and dirt it moves it drops off again 6 inches over in the next dip. Not that it has speed or volume to carry much.

Worst erosion I've had is when I field cultivated some bean sttubble one fall. The rain just sheet eroded the hills down, terrible.

And back when dad and I row crop cultivated, that made terrible ribbons of loose fine dirt that the water built up under and carried down the row, three times a year in the wettest part of the year. That was terrible erosion!

Plowing, eh, not much of a deal, didn't amount to much dirt movement.

Paul
 
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(quoted from post at 09:13:51 04/13/18) Never heard of plowing ground for erosion control. Thought it would be the exact opposite.

I don't see that Paul said that. He refers to minimizing the potential for erosion that is always present when working on ground with even a very gentle slope.
 
Guess we called those harrows. Or a plow harrow as we had a 5 section harrow that we would use on occasion to smooth a field.
 
Never seed the like. IF I was going to all the trouble, I think id go with a section harrow, put on after say 3 rounds with a 2 14in plow, OR a section of rotary hoe.. Course, You cant lift either if you should want to, whereas, with that , you can.
 
Here in cent MI back in the '60,s/'70,s the big time farmers started what was called by the Ag universities as "min till" aka minimum tillage or "plow / plant' Our neighbor was always trying out cutting edge stuff like that. He had a new 4010 and 4 or 5 btm plow and had what was called a "clod buster" chained to the plow and would let it float behind. It was NOT a rigid outfit like shown below. It was a very heavy framed outfit with two rows of angled , heavy spiked wheels, kinda like a ultra heavy rotary hoe. When he was done plowing,even in clay, field looked ready to plant, and that is just what they did. ONE time over the field and right in with planter and then later sprayed for weed control. Was never needed for fall plowing, best leave it rough in fall. This one man farmed a ton of acres , by himself, that way. Most everyone had a clod buster around here. They basically were same as another plow bottom as far as extra needed HP.
 
Most had heavier frames than this so no added weight was needed as in the case of this one. Basic idea same tho.
 
We have rolling clay hills in my area too. Very few mold board plow anymore. Highly erodible land can't be plowed. There are many acres around here that were destroyed years ago by the plow. Stull unusable today due to gullies and washes. I have a 5 borrom John Deere that fas been parked in a fence row for at least 30 years. Have no plans to ever use it.
 
I never used one, several companies made these as universal bolt on in the plowing hay days.

They swing, and just drag over the lumps and lightly bust up a few. Doesn't take much hp and comes up out of the ground for the end rows, and all. Seemed real handy if you were spring plowing in non-clay soil. Mostly just makes it easier driving with the next pass, prosblably a disk, with the lumps smoothed a little bit.

Paul
 
I had one for a while and only got rid of it when I got rid of the tractor-plow combination not thinking later on I would have anouther tractor of that size. Stupid mistake. Have not seen one since I got rid of mine and that was in late 60's.
 
The farmers west of here pull about a 6 foot brillion culti packer chained to a 2 way plow and it really makes a nice seedbed . There is also a company that makes a gooseneck hitch packer that goes behind the big switch plows . I always wanted to rig something up like that . The semi mount ih plows had a factory harrow atachment
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Midwest and Noble both made plow harrows. Where I grew up about 20 miles east of Moline everybody had one in the late 1960's. Really made that first tillage pass after plowing nice. Even with duals on the tractor the ride was smoother. Fall plowing you didn't use them, by spring all the freeze/thaw softened to clods and they broke up as soon as you touched them.

If the plow harrow is not breaking up clods in the spring you are plowing when it's WAY TOO DARNED WET. Get out of the field for 2-3 days. You will be fighting clods all year every trip across the field.

A plow harrow on a 4 bottom plow was like pulling a 5th bottom. Like 1-1/4th of an extra bottom on a 5 bottom, and 1-1/2 extra bottom on a 6 bottom.

Be careful with them when turning on headlands, they like to reach out and grab the fence wire, really hard to get them out of the fence once they catch hold of it.

The Midwest and Noble plow harrows both had three rows of 3/8" wire tines about 10-12 inches long. Work best on semi-mounted and pull type plows, too much added weight on fully mounted plows. Don't think they would work real well on a 2-bottom pull plow, wheelbase too short and narrow. We never used one on our 3-14 IH #8 plows, just 4-14 & 5-14 Case pull type plows.
 

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