Trouble Plowing

WhiteStar · Dec 27, 2011

I went out yesterday to plow up a small section of land that we'll be putting a garden at this spring. Basically it is 40' x 100' that has recently been combined and the guy's combine must have been old as he had lots of tall stalks and plenty of loose corn and some full cobs all around.

So I start to plow with my Ford 860 pulling a Dearborn 2 bottom plow and it starts to cut nice, but then halfway across the field I look back and the plow is full of corn stalks and dirt and is now just pushing the dirt around. I get off, clean it and it starts to work again.

To be honest, the plow is old and is probably not as sharp or shiny as it could be, there are some rust spots that I'm trying to work out. It has the coulters and the back wheel.

Is collecting all the corn cobs around the plow typical, or am I doing something wrong?

rrlund · Dec 27, 2011

Balling up with stalks with an old plow like that is typical,yes. The stalks are still green in the inside,as opposed to being dry and brittle. Best wait til spring,then chop the daylights out of'em with a disc then try to plow'em down. Those old plows barely plowed stalks under in the days of 40 bushel corn riddled with corn borers,much less the tough stalks of high yielding hybrids today.

Don Pine · Dec 27, 2011

What you're doing wrong is attempting to plow corn stalks. Your plow is never going to do an adequate job with the normal residue from a corn crop. The crop residue will have to be worked (chopped, disked, etc.) -before- you can try to plow. And even then you'll probably have to wait for the stalks to weather and settle before you try to turn dirt. There's probably nothing wrong with your plow; you're just asking it to do something beyond it's capability. Put the plow away for now or you'll have a mess that will takes years to correct.

WhiteStar · Dec 27, 2011

Thanks Don and rrunld,

I'll try to tackle the field with some other tools before plowing again. Figure if run the brush hog over it and then disc a few times, it'll be ready to go.

-John

WhiteStar · Dec 27, 2011

Then they had theirs set like crap :lol: .... Good for me as I should be able to shoot a couple of does in January.

Erik Ks farmer · Dec 27, 2011

An old combine can do a fine job if set correctly.

Don Pine · Dec 27, 2011

There you go! That sounds like a good plan.

Anonymous-0 · Dec 27, 2011

We used to plow with a piece of heavy wire tied to the front of the plow hitch. It was positioned so that you "plowed the wire under". When you plow in the same direction the corn was harvested this wire will guide the corn down so that it gets plowed under. If this is set up right you will have very little problem plugging things up.

HTH

Areo

jackinok · Dec 27, 2011

another thing you can do is run your brush hog over the stalks first. Believe it or not thats what it was originaly designed for. weed guards help on plow. but if you dont have any you can take some really stiff wire about 6-8 ft long and wire it on beams ahead of shares extending out to side.when you start a furrow lay these in the bottom and let them drag.dirt turning over into the bottom will hold them and they will work to push stalks aside to help keep them from balling up on bottoms. best way in my opinion is to run the brush hog over them but if you dont have one these other things help.

Trouble Plowing

WhiteStar

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rrlund

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Don Pine

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WhiteStar

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WhiteStar

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Erik Ks farmer

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Don Pine

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Anonymous-0

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jackinok

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