Deep Deep plowing

johndeerefan · Dec 17, 2013

Saw this online today. Anyone ever seen this in action?

Curt Cooke · Dec 17, 2013

Someone please tell me why?

coonie minnie · Dec 17, 2013

My immediate thought was a Forrest Gump quote. "Stupid is as stupid does."

There must be some reason... maybe.

showcrop · Dec 17, 2013

The first one looks like Mongols plowing the steppes. There was a picture, some years ago on YT of it being done at Huntington Beach CA, maybe the thirties. There was a caption saying that it was to break up the silt under the top soil.

johndeerefan · Dec 17, 2013

Here is more info on why supposedly.

More info on the Deep Plowing from yesterday! Deep plowing is a plowing to a depth greater than 50 cm (20 in) as compared to ordinary plowing which rarely exceeds 20 cm (8 in).[1] In practice this requires two or more tractors, one tractor pulling the other tractor.[2] The purpose of deep plowing is to modify the soil water retention characteristics over the long term.[1] In one long term test, lasting 35 years, the mean annual grain yield was 2800 lbs per acre ( 3,138 kg per ha) with deep plowing, which was greater than the 2550 lbs per acre (2,858 kg per ha) yield in unplowed plots.

Tech 7 · Dec 17, 2013

Imagine the dead furrows!

Roger in Iowa · Dec 17, 2013

Deep plowing is sometimes used to plow under sand as a result of flooding. Saw it done one time after the 1951 floods in Kansas. Believe it only took two crawler tractors pulling the plow.

Anonymous-0 · Dec 17, 2013

Here in Hairson county Indiana, if they tried to plough that deep they vould be in solid rock.

Wheat Farmer · Dec 17, 2013

Operators would have to be on there toes. If the first Cat stalled there other four better be grabbing clutches. We would pull a deep oneway hooked to a WD9 and the MD to the WD9. Only once I stopped with the MD not letting my Brother know first. Lucked out nothing got hurt.

Anonymous-0 · Dec 17, 2013

Wouldnt that drastically change the topsoil
moisture? I would be interested in knowing how
yields were affected for the next several years.

tractormiallis · Dec 17, 2013

Looking at the first modern picture, I see no reason for it, brining up the yellow subsoil, burying the nutrient rich topsoil. Seems very foolish.

willys53allis · Dec 17, 2013

could it be used for burying pipelines??

gene bender · Dec 17, 2013

They still do that in the Netherlands as the ground was reclaimed from the sea originaly and they need to plow like that to mix up the soil imagine running a disc after they are done.

gtractorfan · Dec 17, 2013

And imagine tile lines.

JMS/.MN · Dec 17, 2013

Late 50s a MN farm magazine had a story on deep plowing in MI, using 4 Cats to pull it.....went about four feet deep. Purpose was to mix soils. We thought it would work well on some low ground we had since the soils were similar, sandy loam with marl and a touch of clay below, before it turned to coarse sand. All glacial outwash. Field was bordered by a county ditch, and where we leveled the ditch spoil, crops grew better in the mixed soil. Soil warmed sooner, retained more moisture.

DaninKansas · Dec 17, 2013

I think that "yellow" subsoil is actually peat.

mkirsch · Dec 17, 2013

You know, just because you don't know about it doesn't mean it's stupid. This type of deep plowing is not some Johnny Knoxville publicity stunt. There are more than a few valid reasons for it.

That "perfectly good topsoil" isn't topsoil. It's peat moss. Pure peat moss is worthless to grow anything, but more peat moss. They're plowing it under so they can actually grow something there. It mixes in with the subsoil and creates fertile topsoil.

Larry NEIL · Dec 17, 2013

Saw them doing that at the Florida Flywheelers show about 7 or so years ago. I think they were around 4' deep.

4xMF · Dec 17, 2013

Deep plowing (I don't know exactly how deep but nothing close to what is shown on the pictures) is done prior to planting forest. The fertile topsoil is plowed under for the roots to grow in and the subsoil comes on top and as it has no weed seed in it the small trees will less likely be overgrown with weeds.

FLOLDFORD · Dec 17, 2013

Here is a picture of the one we have at the Florida Flywheelers park. It was used to break up the muck in the everglades after we in our great wisdom decided to drain that land and ruined the flow of water thru the glades forever

Fergienewbee · Dec 17, 2013

It wasn't deep, but we had a pretty wide plow doing fire breaks. I don't know the year but those shallow trenches are still there. Sure wouldn't stop a fire; most of it is covered with grass or other vegetation.

Larry

paul · Dec 17, 2013

Neat pics and thread.

I've heard in some areas, the clay washes through the sand,
and the soil gets worn out.

Deep plowing like this every decade or 2 will bring the clay
back up to the top, where it can hold water and nutrients,
putting some of the sand down below again.

The other suggestions sound about right too, basically to mix
the top and sun soil to make a topsoil that works for the need.

Paul

Anonymous-0 · Dec 17, 2013

Yes I have. After the 93 flood along the Mo river, there were a few of these used to turn the sand down as far as possible and get the better soil on top.Takes a lot of power to pull as your picturs state.Neat to watch.

Traditional Farmer · Dec 17, 2013

Try that in my area and they'd be pulling up rocks bigger than the crawlers

David G · Dec 17, 2013

That layer of yellow looks like the marl I have under my slough.

ss55 · Dec 17, 2013

I wonder what it costs per acre to plow like that?

coonie minnie · Dec 17, 2013

Ummm...

Peat, if drained, can be a very productive soil.
Here in WI is used to grow some of our highest
value veggie crops. It can be used to grow field
crops as well, but the higher value crops win from
an economics standpoint. It is far from worthless.

Roy in UK · Dec 18, 2013

A process known as "marling", in other words bringing the marl up from below. It has its benefits of course , but its not for everyone. I remember years ago my dad and I visited a farmer who farmed on some very low lying peaty soil. As we were chatting he pointed to an IH 674 tractor coupled up to a 2 bottom reversible plough. "Look there!" he said "My lad has ploughed most of my land with that thing as deep as it will go, too bloody deep, if only it had another furrow on it I would be happier then he could not have been able to have gone down so far, my land is buggered now, there's no bottom to it, when its wet I dare not go on it!"

larryanderson · Dec 18, 2013

We had a peat bed on one of our farms and my legs start to itch with the thought.You could work it wetter than normal soils and it was very fertile and actually could be burnt to have less humus.I was in Ill. after a large flood and they had deep chiseled at least 3 times to mix the sand with the top soil so they could raise a crop.A few years ago they were promoting deep tillage on bean stubble and demonstrated on several farms in our area but it made it hard to plant plus and excessive wind erosion were a problem now nobody does anything except on cornstalks.

Roy in UK · Dec 19, 2013

Agreed! But the point was that this land was very low lying, whether it had been drained or not I can't say. The point was he had ploughed it too deep, destroyed the soil profile and thus in wet weather would not be able to hold up his machinery.

Deep Deep plowing

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