More field prep questions...

Continued from my question about a good pattern to plow my field, I have another about what to do before and after.


I have an old john deere farm machinery, operation snd maintenance book I'm referring to. It's dated the same year as my tractor, '37. With that being said, and times have changed, what would be the best way to prepare the field for plowing? It has a grass and alfalfa mix, mostly grass. It's maybe 2 feet tall tops.

Do I just plow it under? Do I disk it first to cut down on the trash getting lodged in the plow(it has coulters, and 2 14"s)? Could I just brush hog it first? Should I leave it all alone until spring as to save on soil erosion? Again, I'm in southern Wisconsin.

Also, posted is a pictorial layout of the way of the field I was going to use, keeping in mind all the help everyone gave me from my last post.

Thanks again,
Robert

Also, if it matters, the neighbor offered to plant corn there next year. Supposedly, alfalfa has been grown there the last 10 years.

I always open up new land in the fall and plant a cover crop. It works up much better in the spring time making planting easier. I have been breaking grass land that hasn't been broken in 10+ years to grow vegetables and pumpkins so a good seed bed is desired. If I try and plow in the spring, even early spring, I get big clods of sod that just do not break down fast enough. No matter how good of a job I do plowing this tends to happen. I do not have a large heavy harrow which would help out afterwards to get things broken up as well. I am in Massachusetts where we have rocky soil that is not too wet or thick.

Could just brush hog and no till.

How many acres are we talking here. If it's 10 or more you should ge the neighbor to put up that 2 foot high grass into bales. Don't clip it too short. Where are you located?

mow it down and let it rot as your old plow will not do a good job of turning sod over without plugging or
cut and remove the tall grass.

If it's been in alfalfa, strongly consider just burning it down with Round-up and a little 2,4-D in the spring, and then no till plant. I know, it doesn't have the thrill of plowing, but it will be best for
soil erosion, etc, and it will yield better than trying to plow a bunch of sod and then work all the lumps down. You will get a better stand with no-till. I'm in SE WI. This was our 31st year of no till in
alfalfa sod. It's pretty foolproof, more so than the plow!

I can't say I actually know what I'm doing, as this past year was my very first, so please don't take this as advice. It's just what I did
and it did see to work for our intentions. Sharing for the sake of conversation!

We did two small 1/2 acre trial plots this year. It had been in grass so long as anyone local can remember. We had a reversible single bottom
plow and a Massey 135 gas tractor, and a 3pt disk. We plowed and then disced a few times and surprisingly got very few weeds. We did a crop
of buck wheat which we let go to seed and then disced that under and prior to a second seeding we disced again and currently have our fall
barley planted there. While I did get a project drill, this year we simply broadcast seeded.

Yes, we wanted to do no till for soil conservation purposes, but we simply didn't have the equipment for it. Gotta start somewhere!

It sounds like it depends on what you plan to do with the land. If you or the neighbor plant corn Connie has the best answer if you don't have an issue with the chemicals. Of course it will have to be planted with a no-till planter, maybe your neighbor has one.

If you want to avoid the chemicals it sounds like plowing for this first pass, maybe some form of minimum tillage later. My F145 and 4200 plows would plow that as it is no issue. I don't know how your plow will do.

You could plow now or in the spring and then disc it multiple times before planting in the spring. If you plow now you will suffer wind and water erosion. Someone mentioned a cover crop for winter-over. I don't know if it is getting late for that or not.

If you plow it, regardless of when, you will want to disc it several times to kill the weeds. My dad would disc multiple times with time inbetween for the weeds to sprout. I have been asked to plant habitat for bees and monarch butterflys a couple of times. I got a much better result when I disked it several times after plowing, all in the spring.

I would not brush-hog it, they tend to wind-row the material making it harder to plow or disc.

A neighbor decided he was going to telephone farm his land. He called to coop to burn-it. He called me to disc it. He called another neighbor to plant soybeans. He called the coop to spray it. He called someone to harvest it. In the end he did not make enough and put it back in hay.

Paul

Were it mine, this is what I'd do:
1. See disk it twice, first one way then the
other.
2. Plow it down. If your plow is set right
and you've good coulters you shouldn't have
a problem.
3. Disk it again.
4. Wait til spring and disk it again.
5. Drag it down smooth.
6. Plant it.

But it ain't mine, is it? You've got some
good advice here. So the choice is yours to
make.

Good luck, Mac