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I'm confused! Dont take much!

B

Brian806

Member
So if moldboard plowing is so bad they say it destroys the organic matter in the soil than why do I see people that plant cover crops like rye use a moldboard plow to plow them under! If you don't believe me go on you tube and look at cover crops!
 
How else would you work an heavy crop under but by plowing?.
Having said that,..It has been proven that plowing dries out the soil to much, not a good idea in low rain fall areas.
In my area nobody plows anymore for that very reason.
Beside that,.. plowing is time consuming,..discing is a better option although that dries out the soil as well.
 
I don't think anyone would say it destroys organic matter. It can increase erosion and gives you a plow pan that roots can have a hard time growing through. The only time I see a plow in a field around "here" is when they run a 4 or 5 bottom around the headlands to keep them from sodding in.
AaronSEIA
 
Some years ago when I was still raising wheat, I quit using a moldboard plow to prep the field for planting.

I went to using a chisel plow and one or two passes with a disc. Whole lot faster, worked the ground just as deep, made just as good of a seed bed, and you didn't have dead furrows and back furrows to deal with.

I never heard about the moldboard plow destroying the organic matter in the soil.
 
The difference I see in moldboards and discing, including one
ways, is that the moldboard usually does a better job of flipping
soil with a lot of vegetation. I don't have one and the heavy clay
soil around here doesn't like them (gum-up) so I have to do one
of the other options.

On the plow pan I agree, especially in our clay. Course a ripper
will help cure that and I have a soil conditioner which is a multi
shank ripper but not as aggressive as the big ones; shallower and
narrower heads.

On flipping the soil and ruining it, I don't know where the guy
got that idea. Around here all they preach is plow under stubble
and such to build up the humous to enrich the soil, make the
percolution improve and improve root growth of the follow on
crop.

As far as "as many ways as there are farmers", I certainly
subscribe to that. I came out here 35 years ago ag. illiterate and
have been working on my PhD in ag. ever since from "Hard
Knocks University". Seems I never do the same thing year to
year....same with building fence.....no two are alike on my place.

Mark
 
Just saw on a TV show that the microbes and organisms were in the top 3 inches of soil and that moldboard plowing plowed them under too deep and the soil turned up then had to grow new soil organisms, that would take a couple years.

If that were true, how did we ever grow crops back in the years that we were plowing under heavy cover crops such as 7ft. tall green sweet clover that increased yields for the following 3-4 years?

Theory and practical experience don't agree on that one.
 
Times have changed. Back when Dad and Grandpa farmed , a lot of farmers used year away seed and no fertilizers or weed spray on soybeans. Claimed it was just "trading money" in the end. We fall plowed one field of wheat stubble(very slightly broadcasted fertilized in spring) right beside another field of soy stubble just surface worked. Soys at blossom time were 6" taller on plowed ground,right to the very row. If one plows down 5' cover crop 8" deep, angle worms will be 8" deep and microbes will follow. Fert./chemicals/$$$ now-a days will make up a 4" seed bed that will grow astronomical yields. They didn't have all that and the $$$to bury. Some will still agree that it is just keeping the bankers/seed& fert. dealers/ equipment dealers/ truckers and grain bin/dryer dealers all in bussiness. Handling a lot of bushels doesn't always equal a lot of profit. We / Grandpa usually got 30 bu. per acre (20 in a dry year) from soys and 90% of it was ours after expences. Like they said below , lot of ways to farm and some just help the economy more than the farmer.
 
They have their place but for corn and beans they compact the soil at the plow depth, or plow pan as Aaron says. That compacted zone will interfere with the roots going deep which can be a problem in dry years.
 
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