Plowing Dry Soil? Do-Able?

How challenging is it to plow DRY land.

Basically, here is the dilemma. I guy a mile away gave me 6-7 acres to farm. Said I could do what I want with it. Right now, it is lumpy / scattered sod, hasn't been farmed in 20 years. Had 13 trees in it, but I am working on getting those all ripped out with the backhoe. Fair number of rocks.

Property is fairly square, and I will be plowing ACROSS a side hill (nothing dangerously steep or anything) It is sandy/dirt rather than the thick clay we have at home. Right now, there is some wild grass in it, and maybe a few weeds, but fairly clean I must say!!

We haven't had rain for months up here... It is really really really dry, everything is hard. Digging around up there with the backhoe, it isn't as hard as I thought it would be, but not "ideal" for plowing.

SO, is it possible for me to plow it under?? I really want to get it rolled before winter, so it can sit there idle all winter, then I can just plant it over come spring. Don't plan on discing or anything, JUST plowing. Don't have much plowing experience, just wanted to see what you guys thought... Bryce

You will need a plow with GOOD points and a heavy plow even then. The ground will be hard to get the plow started into. It will shatter well and the winter freezes will make it mellow. I will take any fall plow job over the best spring plow job. So go for it. I have had to put wheel weights on the plow frame to get them to go into the ground when it is dry. Leave your little pull plow with the worn points home, it will not work.

PS If you get the plow into the ground it will PULL hard!!! So if you got a tractor with anew engine it would be a good time to seat the rings.

What crops will you be planting in it?

If it's on a hillside leave it be for the winter, it's a bad practice to fall plow hilly ground as it tends to errode with out roots and plants to hold the soil in place. Don't know where exactly you are but a suggestion would be oats or barley next spring as a cover crop for getting a hay field established. On the scale you're farming small squares of hay for horse owners might be a profitable crop for you or feed it to sheep/steers and fill the freezer at home.

Wish you could come through North Central Iowa here in about 3-4 months and see the gray/black snow in the ditches from the wind erosion because of fall tillage.s. We're setting ourselves up for another dust bowl.

If it is sand as you say it is then it should be no problem with a North American style plow. European plows such as the Kverneland have points that allow for high penetration. Some guys adapt the American plows by welding steel to the plow share to provide a point so the plow sucks into the ground.

The things you need to consider are is the ground highly erodible and does the ground have a conservation easement/agreement that prevents fall tillage without planting a cover crop to prevent erosion. If a conservation agreement exists you may be past the date for tillage if it is permitted. If there are no conservation issues is the ground prone to wind or water erosion? It might be best to consult with somebody in your area that is familiar with the topography in question.

When I was a kid we didn't irrigate anything, so in western and central Kansas we were always plowing dry and eating dust.

Yes, I am going to put it in as Oats for hay this next year. Then maybe a Hard Red wheat in all of my fields. Need to come up with a combine first though...

Thats kind of what I thought... I usually only plow about 4 1/2 inches deep, not 6 like a lot of guys like to!

I have a bunch of cut up sections of grade blades, what if I put 100 lbs of those on there? IF it doesn't go into the ground that is. I have a JD plow with NICE points on it, it just isn't home, so I will haul it up to the field and use it. Great plow... Farmall H pulling 2x14 should get her done huh?! I'll try the SC first, but I have my doubts...

We don't have any erosion stuff, just bare private land. Wind, well, it might get breezy, but we are never really windy, and it will only be bare land for another 2 months before snow. After that, I plan to get on it EARLY in the year. because I want to get the oat hay off of it, then turn right around and get red wheat in on it for the winter...

We have had some dry spring weather some years around here and the soils have clay. These soils can get quite hard and it can be very difficult to get a plow to suck in. One year I welded or lets say extended existing shares on an IH 5 bottom with old shares. The farmer I helped seemed to do this some years, I had never seen it done or used in the field. Knowing the rocks, the abrasiveness of the clay/loam/gravel like soils with areas that have large round or otherwise smooth glacial till rocks, I used larger 7018 electrode, 5/16" if I recall, turned up the heat and laid some stout welds with the Miller NT 251 trailblazer welder I have. He had an older Miller A/C welder but I brought mine over to do this. He could not get the plow to suck in this one side of a large hill field, just to dry, but this worked and he wore those off or until he put new shares on, nothing broke. Some years its wet, normal, others like this. Another problem was compaction, part of that side is where you travel through to get to the other fields further back, more traffic on that area, loaded trucks, machinery etc.

Ironically, in 2010, I planted several food plots, in areas that were crop land 20-30 years prior, really lush top soils from years of vegetation growing before I reclaimed it by mowing. There was some clay in low areas that will get soft when wet, but the soils plowed with worn shares and an improperly adjusted plow. It rolled over and was like baby powder. We had a long dry spell that summer, this was a fall planting in late august. The milkweed all wilted and never formed any seed heads, it was that dry, lush field of grasses with some weeds all turned tan on the hill near the house, never saw that before, when I cut it, it was terrible, like harvesting a grain crop with an open station machine, the chaff dust was miserable. I was surprised the plow worked at all, we did get rains soon after and the plots grew nicely.

With what you describe, I would be real concerned about wind erosion. I have areas that I reclaimed and the top layers of top soil is black fines, when dry turn to dust, its incredible soil, but you will soon lose that layer to erosion, and any crop land in regular use will never show any black top soils in this area, even with heavy manure applications. I've learned not to plow deep, or risk soil erosion given what I see here. Its amazing what is in the top layers after 30+ years of being abandoned or overgrown, hard to imagine what was there way back when the fields were first cleared.

I forget your location exactly, up here in the tundra of Minnesota a poor fall plowing is 5 times better than a good spring heavy tillage pass.

Its different in warmer climates.

Leave it rough, as you say, and it won't wash away.the worst one can do is finish it off smooth for winter. Rough ground will make small cups so it doesn't wash bad, and wind blows the peaks into the dips, not all over the county.

It can be tough plowing dry dirt, if its clay. Sandy not so bad.

You need a good new share or the plow might skip over the surface. Dad would put a rock on a 2 or three bottom pull type plow, a mounted you need to set right to suck in better.

And dry dirt eats up shares a lot faster than moist dirt.

We have been pretty dry here the past 3 weeks, but it still have tile lines running.

Paul

Well, I am only plowing like 10 acres, so I don't imagine I would see THAT much wear on my plow... My JD No.52 is all set to go, and it has really good shares, but the axle housing broke on me this spring. A buddy nickle welded it back up, so we need to try it, and see if it is going to hold up for me. If not, I have another Case plow, that does a some what decent job, and also has good shares...

I have about 500 lbs of cut up grader blades, the cutting edge that is. They are in like 40-60 lb chunks, and we use them for all kinds of things... I bet I could easily wire 3 or 4 of them onto the beams of the plow, that would force it in GOOOOOOD!

Going to try plowing here at the house sometime first. Maybe this afternoon... Just to see how it does. We might be a LITTLE moist down here, but I doubt it... We will see!

If you can't come up with a combine I've seen both wheat and oats cut at the dough stage, dried then baled for hay. But then my education was dairy science/husbandry and my interest in crops was that's what cows eat. I grew up on a farm with some marginal crop land due to hills and poor cropping practices that chewed up top soil so my focus was trying to get the marginal land on the home farm in forage production to feed cattle in minimal tillage situations, this would cut back on our soil loss and limit the need for bigger tractors and equipment to be competitive in raising feed grains.

Back to you original question yes you can plow dry soil, in a sandy soil it will be harder but not bad, throw a clay or heavy roots in the equation and you'll be testing you equipment's mettle. I remember fitting for wheat in August in central Michigan pulling 3-14s behind a super M. It was pulling hard in second and running hotter than I liked to see it and I chewed up a set of plow points pretty darn quick. Ended up putting new points on the plow and changing the oil in the tractor to 40 weight, got the temperature down to were I liked it but was sure using up plow parts quicker than I wanted to. I was putting wheat back on after wheat trying to get the field smooth enough to put into hay.

Thats what I did this year, cut oats in the dough stage, and made hay out of them... LOT of "horse" people around here really like the stuff.. . I have never had horses, and personally don't really know WHY people do like it, but, they do!

Wait for a good cold front with heavy rain to come through, when the crust freezes over go plow it then. It will turn over like Oreo cookie crumbs. Won't stress your tractor or plow nearly as bad, but wear long underwear and take a bottle of brandy with you!

After plowing, drag a harrow over it, that will knock the tops off of the sod and it will work better in the spring.

This is clay about as dry and hard as it gets. Takes a good plow to stay down at plowing depth when it's this hard.

OHHHHHH?! Now there is an interesting thought!!!

So you are saying that once the water gets in there, THEN freezes, that it will just break apart? That makes sense to my little pea brain!!!

Like the sound of the Brandy too.... That will make the farming day a little shorter feeling??!

You got it, old indiana white clay plowing trick. Best done with a heat houser on the tractor, or tractor with a cab. You want a fresh hard freeze, the moisture will be locked in underneath the crust.

Well, it's fixin to be a North Idaho trick too!!!

No heat houser...
No cab....

Thremals, and coffee will have to do....

Thanks for the advice, I am going to probably give it a try depending on how things go in the next few weeks!! Plowed an acre at the house today with any issues, but it was DRY. Going to be worse up at the new field..

Yep .... woks like Todd said AND stay warm!

Bryce, you'd probably be better off consulting with farmers in your area. Something considered good practice in one region might be questionable a couple hundred miles away and could be an unacceptable practice a thousand miles away. The Great Dust Bowl started out with farmers plowing under sod before what turned out to be a dry year.

Local guys might tell you to not use a plow at all, maybe a chisel, sweeps or some other implement.

Well, thats the problem though, I AM the farmer around here!! Go 100 miles, and yes, there are farmers, but they will tell you to go bout $150,000 worth of tractor to get the job done. People don't believe in doing it the "Old" way anymore... There are really two guys I get my info from, that I trust... Waiting to hear back from them.

On the plus side, it is raining right now....

Have you tried your county agriculture extension office, run by your state's land grant university?