Sod Breaking

rusty6 · Oct 16, 2016

An old photo from 1986 of my dad and brother trying out an old sod breaking plow that came with the farm he bought. They broke up a pretty good sized piece of ground that had gone back to slough grass and willows over the years. We got a few crops off it but it has been under deep water for a good many years now.

Paul from MI · Oct 16, 2016

Looks like an old Massey 444. My brother still has one he's farmed with for 30 years.

RBoots · Oct 16, 2016

That's a real nice pic. What's the deal with the water there now? Was it flooded intentionally, or just like here, changing weather conditions?

rusty6 · Oct 16, 2016

(quoted from post at 18:39:16 10/16/16) That's a real nice pic. What's the deal with the water there now? Was it flooded intentionally, or just like here, changing weather conditions?

Water table has been way above normal here for must be near ten years now. Water runs in from higher ground and has nowhere to go until it gets high enough to run off onto someone else's property. We have lost a lot of acres to flooding but there are places where it is even worse than here.
And yes Paul, that is a triple 4 Massey tractor in the picture.

Philip d · Oct 16, 2016

That's a really nice picture! Nice Massey too!

Benj R · Oct 16, 2016

Nice picture .(Like the 444.)

Bruce from Can. · Oct 17, 2016

Just a few years from now, maybe 100-150 , they will becoming up with some kind of plan to create drainage ditches and pumping stations , for you guys. Then you will be able to install field tiles , and drain into the ditches. All it will take is for the price of grain to go high enough . Not going to be holding my breath.As population grows , and good land becomes more valuable , it could come to pass, sounds far fetched now though.

farmerwithmutt · Oct 17, 2016

Odd to say this but there is less land use in my area due to high grain prices. What I've seen is old pasture plowed up but there has been areas that it's absolutely impossible to plant and they will try and plant anything. But the remaining ground small as it is will become wildlife habitats instead of pasture also a lot of fence rows grow out because they aren't pushed back like they used to be. If you were around the dubuque area you can see that they will work a 5 acre bottom patch and leave a 15 acre field that could be grazed but is to wet to work. The thing I can't understand is sure the grass gets flooded but you can get a crop later but with corn if it drowns no chance.

Dick2 · Oct 17, 2016

Nice to think and talk about draining wetlands, but it you start digging here in the U.S. there will be all kinds of federal officials after you. They will fine you big time!

rusty6 · Oct 17, 2016

(quoted from post at 05:48:43 10/17/16) Nice to think and talk about draining wetlands, but it you start digging here in the U.S. there will be all kinds of federal officials after you. They will fine you big time!

It is going the same way here. Technically you need to have all the paperwork and permits in place if you want to drain any water. Although I think as long as it does not affect the neighbours nobody complains about helping the water to move along. We have lost many acres of the best land to flooding the past decade. The municipality has spent many tax dollars pumping water and hauling fill to keep roads above water. The one in this photo had recently emerged in the summer of 2015 after many days of pumping.

Sod Breaking

rusty6

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Paul from MI

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RBoots

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rusty6

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Philip d

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Benj R

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Bruce from Can.

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farmerwithmutt

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Dick2

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rusty6

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