What is the proper way to disk?

chas036

Member
With a newly plowed field, what is the correct way to disk the first time on the field? Is it to go across the furrows, or to go with the furrows? I am using a JD 730 with a 10 foot transport disk.
 
I always go with the furrows - it can be a pretty rough ride across the furrows for the first time depending on the field and how good the plowing job is. Sod is a lot rougher than a filed that was worked previously.
 
You will have a rough ride if you go across the furrows. Go with the furrows or. as has been stated, slightly angled with the furrows for your first pass and with more angled on the next few passes. It would be unusual for most of us to ever go cross furrow.
 
Would help if we knew how big the patch was, but wouldn't change my answer, I'd disk parallel to the plowing. A 730 should really play with a tiny disk like that 10 ft.

To reduce compaction, make sure the plowed ground is dry, duals on the drive wheels of the tractor really help reduce compaction too, but would make the tractor wider than your disk. Our 4010 with 15.5x38 tires and 13.6x38 duals was as wide as our Kewanee 12 ft 4 inch disk.

Only fieldwork we did at a slight angle was disking corn stalks for plowing, or chisel plowing. Seemed to chop up the stalks a little better.
 
Definitely not across the furrows, especially without duals. You will make the field so rough that you won't be able to stand it. The tractor wheels are going to cut ruts that the disk won't quite fill in. It'll look fine from the tractor seat but you'll feel it in your behind as you drive the length of the field.

Also on a field that isn't perfectly square, running crosswise is horribly inefficient. You'll spend the whole time turning, which will make the job take 3X as long, and you'll pack all four edges of the field down hard as rock.
 
At a slight angle to the plowing...say 20-30 degrees...You"ll cut the highs and fill the lows of the field, without having a rough ride. Crossways, you"ll accomplish very little regarding smoothing the field, and it will be extremely rough.
 

If the field is flat bottom ground, disk at an angle to the direction of plowing. If the field is hillground and has terraces for erosion control, then you have no choice but to disk it on the contour just the same as you plowed it.
 
Never went on any angle and always cross second time over. On like oat ground to follow up with wheat then we did go at angle starting with oposite corners and just going around the field first on one side of tractor then on the other and we would get finnished with the oposite corners. In other words over twice and no wasted time. But we never finnished a plowed field with a disk. Either a spring tooth harrow, field cultivator or cultimulcher with a spike tooth hooked behind to level. Just depended on how the ground plowed, smooth or rough. Fall plowed we did not use a disk at all but a field cultivator. I have tried disking stalks at an angle but it was way to rough a ride rocking back and forth at every row and in doing that it was constantly wipping the disk with every row.
 
Neither. Going across makes for a rough ride on disk and a rough ride on the next field operation. Going with the furrows and you happen to straddle a high furrow, disk will go a mile deep and you can't pull it. Always disk at a slight angle.
 
Put the disk in the ground and drive parallel with the furrows overlapping half a disk width with each round. Repeat as needed. You'll figure it out.
 
Go at a slight angle. The disk will drag the plow ridges over into the valleys. Going crossways the ride is rough, as has been mentioned but the disk will also be pitching front to back as it goes over the plow ridges, making for an uneven job. I used to have a neighbor who disked only with the rows, not at an angle. Over the years the field became so full of ridges the combine couldn't do a good job with the bean head.
 
Those of you that say to go at a slight angle evidently are not using older smaller tractors as with them that slight angle jusy bakes a rockong motion all the time, straight does not do that. Now if you are using newer big tractors with a lot bigger tires you will not feel that rocking motion as they cover enough area for the furrow slab ridges they will not drop into every one.
 
The first ten years of my disking career, if I want to call it that was spent on a Deere A, then a 630. Plowed ground was soft enough that there wasn’t any rocking working at an angle. Working v ripping is a different story. The tractor will rock and roll and bounce in v ripping if the angle is wrong, even with duals.
 
We always fall plowed and then worked the ground down in the spring either with a field cultivator or a 30 foot farmhand multi weeder which was just a cultivator with Danish s tines and followed buy a coil tine harrow
 
Most of the time the ground was not that soft, actually had to be worked 3 or 4 times to get fit to plant. And I rode a JD A for years, also a couple of B's, An AD Deere with 26" rear wheels and Ford 2N and Ferguson TO 30 with 12.4x28" tires. The 28" tires were the worst.
 

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