Tillage in the 50s

Hello!
I was hoping to get some input from farmers that worked in the late 50s and early 60s. Currently farm a small amount of dryland in ND with a wheat and soybean rotation. I was plowing in the fall then disking and seeding. I am wondering if any of those people from those areas that farmed the same crop simple disked in the fall and once again in the spring and seeded? How did it work? I am using a 10ft JD disk harrow and a 1957 JD 620. Thanks for any input!!

Not familiar with ND, I'm in Illinois. The equipment available in the 50's and 60's was not made to handle trash very well, thus the need to clean plow in order to have a good seed bed. Not sure what you have for equipment, but the less you disturb the soil, the more moisture you will save. If your planter will plant in trash residue, I think it would be acceptable to disk it and then plant your crop. Chris

Might not help in your case, but this is what was common in our area of southern MN at that time.
Ground for corn & beans was plowed to turn the trash under. Fall plowing was preferred. Spring work was to disc, twice with the older single disc, once if you had a new fangled tandem, & spring tooth field cultivator. If not plowed to bury the trash, the trash would plug up on the planter shoes & later on the cultivator.
Ground for small grins such as oats, wheat, rye, or flax was disced, then seeded.
Things have changed since then. With modern planters & chemicals replacing cultivating, plowing probably not needed, depending on your soil type.
WJ

With the lack of herbicides in the 50's especially, everyone used to beat the ground to death in the spring trying to kill the weed flushes. Don't remember anybody getting too excited if the seed wasn't in the ground by april 15th though....coarse 80 bushels of corn was a pretty good year also.

what type of planter do you use with the soybean. do you cultivate between the rows. I'm organic, located in central ND and thus still use a fair amount of steel in my farming practice. Also do you spray for weed control or is your plan to use steel and or cover crops only?

Hello Steve
I am farming just east of Lincoln ND so probably close to you. I am new only my second year. I use no chemicals at all just starting to get my cover crop and tillage figured out. I don't want to plow anymore if possible, but with my smaller hp tractor I am limited on options. I think if I disk twice once in the fall and once in the spring I will be okay, but I have not tried of course. Or I was going to get a small offset disk or a oneway disk. I use a IH 100 drill for all my seeding.

I'm happy to hear you do not use chemicals. Although that does make things slightly more difficult for you with a small tractor and limited tillage. you mentioned wheat and soybeans as your two main crops. I would recommend going to a 3 or 5 year rotation with at least 5 or more crops including over wintering cover crops. Also I see one main problem with a disk. Especially twice in the fall. you will have black fields for winter with nothing to hold your soil. Very bad! Also light disks are very known for creating a claypan at the depth where they run. instead utilize minimal tillage and cover crops in addition to crop residue burning and natural weed killers like vinegar and organic citrus products. not sure of the width of your tractor but a old vibra shank chisel plow would be a good investment. limit the shank number to 1 per every 7-10 hp of your tractor and keep the speed above 5mph with ripper tips. This will break up compaction yet will leave residue on the surface to hold soil. then disk in front of your drill when planting. I run the disk and my 8300 JD drill with a cultipacker when I plant. works good and doesn't require a great deal of HP.

Steve,
Thanks a bunch for the information!!! Yes, the no chemical part makes it harder, but it makes me feel good about how I farm. My tractor is a JD 620 with 48HP. I was thinking a cultivator in front of my drills and disk once before seeding may be an option, which is close to what you are saying too. I am now trying to learn about cover crops and fertilizer through manure or green manure. Again I really appreciate your help as well as all the others. Lots to learn and being a small operator with small equipment most people dont want to help a lot. So to you all thanks!!

I think my dad was ahead of his time in that era as he almost never plowed except alfalfa. We would single disk the corn (with a lot of rocks on it for weight to penetrate the stalks and ground) and drill the grain in directly. Then we would drag (harrow) the field for final smoothing. It is quite dependent on the type of soil you have also. This farm was in southern So Dak and the soil was fairly light. Corn was planted with a lister (if you know what they are) after disking the stubble. He used a minimum tillage planter for the irrigated corn as he planted on the same row year after year (certainly not organic back in those days when they used really bad chemicals) The dry land farming was really organic except for sometimes he sprayed for weeds. We used manure for fertilizer. Roger