Rolling under nature's Fertilizer.

Well I got back into the field today with the new to us White 598 plow. I plowed in
a field close to the farm to get everything tweaked the way I want it. I set the
vari-width to 20" today and the 7220 handled it nicely in 9th gear at less than full
throttle at 4.4 to 4.8mph. This is a nice speed and bottoms throw nice furrows. I am
plowing 8-10" deep and bouncing off the tops of limestone ledges, so faster just
breaks the plow. The spring resets are working well, but on occasion one will reset
a bit sluggish, but the ark of the point on the White reset system has to extend
down and scoop a bit of extra dirt to get back to the "HOME" position. My old Case
hydraulic reset plow used different geometry and the plow point retracted and
reentered the ground in a positive arc so it reset easier and quicker.








I am finding that I have to be much more on my game to keep this plow turning consistent bouts. Plowing a 10ft. swath with a plow that is around 25ft. long requires me to have to adjust front to rear plowing depth, as the tractors transverse angle to the ground changes from plowing down slope to plowing up slope, plus constantly having to adjust the cut width of the first furrow with the landing attachment that I built. It is sort of a dance across the field with the depth control and remotes to keep the plow doing what I want it to do and not leave a trail from each bout. An inch of width on front furrow or inch of depth at the front of plow make a very visible difference in the overall plowing job.

Temps peaked @25F at noon today. It is supposed to warm up into the mid 50's later this week, so I am hoping to get in some good productive days the rest of the week. The snowy crust made the beanstalks brittle today and the colters cut them well. They were pretty tough earlier this week and would plug the colters, but the coulters scoured up and are shiny now , so I hope I am past that issue also.
Loren

Sure looks like you've got it performing really well, with all that is involved! It's amazing at what it takes to set and adjust a mold board plow to get good results. I'm still trying to master this one that I put new shins, shares and landsides on. Did a decent job turning the furrow up hill in my larger garden patch

Billy; You sure got a PERDY shine on those bottoms!!!
Tomorrow I am going to make some changes on the position of the cross hitch bar in relation to the pivot tower on the front of the plow to give me a bit more movement on the landing attachment.
Good consistent plowing one trip after another seems to be becoming a lost art.
It also amazes me how few people know how to adjust a tandem disc harrow to make a smooth and level finish.
Loren

looks great! i always like the looks and smell of fresh turned soil!
the white plows have a good reputaion in my area

So you bought a white plow to plow the white ground.

First pic I saw that thought it was funny.

Nice work.

Paul

So I guess it’s really a snow plough now.

White built plows for both Ford and CASE during the late 70's and 80's. Being a CASE Dealer we sold a lot of WHITE built plows. They were the farmers choice here in the NE also.
Loren

and destroying organic matter at the same time!

How so?

Billy; I took a second look at your pictures and there is a really good picture of the landing--lead lever on your 3pt plow. Not a lot of people ordered that option on plows, and have no clue how to adjust it. On your plow if you push the lever back like you have it and lock it into the rooster comb, the plow will carry itself to the RH direction for turning a furrow up hill. When one pulls the lever forward the plow will carry itself to the left in relation to the tractor, and thus cut a full width furrow when plowing furrows down hill. Most people think that they need the sway bars to control the plow on side hills but that is just a stop gap measure. A lot of plows had a means of rotating the eccentric draft bar with a threaded bolt and nuts, but that sure wasn't practical when plowing sidehills.
The hydraulic attachment that I built for this 6B semi-mounted plow does the same thing that your landing-lead lever does.

everyone has a opinion,, you are wrong about that though, using chem sprays and chem fert is what kills soil structure,, smell dirt that is no-till or min-tilled and is sprayed/fert added it smells Sour/Dead my soils and I would bet what Bro is plowing smells like Fresh dirt like it should,, this old song and dance some of you cry about every time a plow is shown working is boring to say it politely

All the organic matter gets turned under and decomposes in about a years time. Bits of very rotted pieces of corn stalks are turning up and crumbling, as I plowed today. These pieces of residue plowed under trap and hold moisture all summer long during the growing season. Just what do you gain by leaving all the crop residue on top to dry up and plug your no-till planters and drills in the spring or loose crop foliage that ends up blowing into and decomposing in a fence row??
I will be glad to compare our organic matter content in our soil to yours any day of the week.
I can understand the virtues of leaving some residue on top of the soil to limit wind erosion, but here in the North East we don't have wide open expanses of crop land where wind moves quantities of dirt. We have lots of hedgerows and wooded areas and hills and valleys to limit wind erosion, and water erosion is controlled with contour strip cropping. We are not "Flat Land Farmers" here, and do things suited to our conditions.
Loren

When my wife and I moved from Maine to ND, one of her remarks was “I feel like I am gardening on the moon!”

Soils in the Midwest, and those in the northeast have very little in common. They each require their own methods to be able to productively farm them.

Looks good . I always had the same issues with my 5 bottom semi mount i had to always play with it or you could see every pass. Those rotting bean stalks and white nitrogen should be good for the soil.. they say leaving the plant residue on top still helps the soil on the no till ground i don’t understand it all

Your soil looks very good.

I have had the best luck on mine with no till, as I have clay hills that will erode. My dad and grandfather all plowed green manure like you did, but the ground was flatter. It seems like a lot of extra work you are doing, but seems to work and I enjoy seeing the pictures. You will definitely have more microbes than I will with no till.

Your pictures have inspired me, might look at a mixture of no till with having fallow ground that I plow the green manure under.

Adirondack case guy- I always enjoy looking at your plowing pictures and posts, I don't usually comment. I agree with your comments of our soils and conditions in NY are different then other places, not all that many big open fields around here in WNY either. Usually they are a few acres between wood lots, roads and hedge rows. There are still some people that moldboard plow around here quite a bit.
I wish I knew more about setting up a semi mount plow and what to look for while using it, but I learn more and more each time I use it. We only do a few acres a year and it's just for sweet corn and deer food plots. If you ever gave a class on plowing and setup I would attend it!! Although right now Uncle Andy won't allow it! Please keep up the nice picture and information. Thanks

The attention to front to back setting really pays off when you have to run crosswise to the field during harvest.

Here's the facts on organic matter... yes us no-till guys leave a lot on top, but we also don't disturb underneath, which plowing does- bringing the root mass to the top, where it can rot down. I've rented several farms that were moldboard plowed for 50 plus years or more and soil tested them. By no-tilling, using cover crops, etc I've been able to increase organic matter by .5 to 1% (5-10 tons per acre, or 25-50% jump on soils that were 2-2.5% to begin with) in 5 years.
With 40 plus years of soil testing results here on our farm, I can tell you we had decreasing organic matter levels when we plowed, and increasing levels when we stopped.

All this leads to more water holding capacity, better structure to withstand water and wind erosion, greater populations of worms that do tillage for us, better soil microbiology that helps release fertilizer to growing plants, etc. At the same time I'm not fixing the plow, fueling the tractor, etc. and can spend more time with my cattle and family. And much less time picking stones.

It's been a win, win, win. We ARE not picking on you, but instead trying to point out there are alternatives that can lead to more profit and a longer term future in agriculture.

Yes soils are different in the Northeast- I lived there for 4 years. Yours look more like ours in the Midwest than a lot of soil I saw in central NY. Nonetheless, I've worked with no-tillers in Vermont that have had good success and are eager to share their success, even on the heavy clays along Lake Champlain.

I too enjoy your photos, but realize many of us are proud of our methods, too- there's no pride in soil in the ditch, or brown runoff. BAck 25 years ago, there was plenty of that in central NY.

Coonie Minnie, that sounds like scientific method.

I'd say you are right,having organic matter on top of the ground that stays there is where its wasted while turning it into the ground captures it to decompose and will feed organisms and earthworms which in turn breaks the organic matter down and makes the ground richer and more workable.With my garden and vegetable plots I disk them up every Fall working the plant residue into the ground then plant a cover crop and til that under in the Spring before planting.I'll put the fertility and organic matter in those pieces of ground up against any.In this red clay those that no til have to deep chisel plow every few years because the ground gets so tight it won't absorb rainfall very well and stunts plant roots otherwise.

I raised oil seed crops for a our University a few years back,, when the man I and three of his co workers was dealing with came and seen how I farmed they were very concerned that my soil would need all kinds of extra nutrients added to properly raise the test crops, so they insisted on doing a mass of soil tests,, I had never ever had one done so I was interested to see what the results would say. When they came back all four of the UW people were shocked to see my soils were well into the numbers they said the crops would need to flourish and grow well,, so nothing was added. the gal doing the soil samples told me the critters in the soil I had she had only read about as she was from a area in Colorado that has been no-till for longer than she had been alive at that point, to say the least she was impressed as they all were, I had never met any of them prior to doing those tests. They even added a write up in their reports of how well the full tillage farming worked how I was doing it in the oil seed report they did after the tests were over,, wish i had had them give me a copy to post here, but I am sure there would be some here who still call me a liar and so be it,, I would like to add that I agree no till can save moisture,, but only if you get it can it save it, like I have said many times I raise crops on less than 5" of H20 for the year many times and on perfect years I can receive up to 14" this is the whole year total with any snow H20 added in as well,, my soil has to be ready to save and store the H20 I get, no-till here makes the ground set up like concrete in dry years,, and with out banking up the years farming H20 int he summer fallow ground you raise also no production,, not sure why i even take time to post this really,, I know it falls on many deaf ears of those who think they have it all wrapped up in their no till only thinking. I also do not go around telling those same ones I know what their area needs nor do I say they are destroying their soils and wasting money,, I actually have respect for how they have learned and or modified way to optimize their own area and soil production. that said a few pics of my farm through the years,,





these shots are the sunflowers i raised,, the heads were 8-11" across and grew 5-8' high, they were planted with a JD 290 planter I setup with the sunflower seed plates, I cultivated them three times to control weeds, no chemical spray was used on any of the three oil seed crops I grew, the last pic there you can see the sunflowers, the Safflower and then a bit of ground I had left over I had worked up for the trails I had planted to corn, also planted with the JD 290








the last crop I raised was Camelina, I planted it with my CASE ED double disc press drills, all crops had yields well into the numbers for dry land growing that was collected in Montana Wyoming and Colorado, of course it was far below irrigated yields as we only ended up getting 5" of H20 on the crops from planting date until harvest









I also hold the high yield for dry land small grain and hay production here. this is a forage barley I raise called Hay Bet Hay Barley, that year it averaged over 125 BPA,, 90 to 100 BPA for me is the normal providing i get the needed H20












Last pic you can see the next summer fallow strip had not beenw orked yet and has some wild oat growth I was cutting off

Wow! Nice job.. From the south,, I have never seen someone plant a crop of snow. :roll:

Bro, this is the only time I plow deeper than 6-7" in most fields I just flat out have too many rocks to go much deeper,,







I need to shift my plow drawbar over just a bit for the VA but it does a decent enough job for the garden even so

great post!!!thanks!!!!!1

Nice pictures, I'll post some tonight.

Yep. Farming is my career, not a hobby. We do the best we can.

Thanks for taking time post and the pics, a good read. 👍
Very interesting.

Watching dirt roll off a moldboard is one the most beautiful sights in the world

Forget the grade and subject, but back in the early days of my education, I remember a book with a picture of a farmer "contour plowing". I was an urbanite and other than my grandpaws little 3 acres, never was on a farm. Don't know why the picture is still stuck in my head but it is.....and even though my land is pretty flat, where it slopes I do as they did.

Loren, when I got this plow 10 years ago, the moldboards were scoured and polished, but whoever was using it wore into the frogs. I didn't have to repair them, but they could use some building up, which I am pretty good at doing. Initially, I coated with grease to protect them, rustoleum works a lot better and will last for years. I have not used this plow in at least 4 years, never had any darned time to turn some dirt.

I learned from a long time farmer and am proud to say I worked with him for several years, part and full time. His 5-18 IH plow seemed to really do a great job, photos below. Spring planting was a favorite time of year, he just loved being out in the fields and work he did. He never did a lot of fall plowing but used to plant winter wheat here in the same field way back when. I have a lot of fond memories and quite a few photos from when I worked with him and his sons.

Glad you posted about your latest with the fall plowing, fascinating to understand how you deal with the rock ledge, the terrain, soil conditions and all the adjustments and things you are doing to get the results including how the crops come in.

I never knew what that is called, some of these came with levers, others no levers but you can still adjust the eccentric draft bar. Like you, I grew up with a certain brand and was under the impression that these mounted plows, built by Oliver and I forget who else, were a great design that pulled easy with good results. The cool thing is that this tractor has adjustable telescoping stabilizer arms and that this plow also can be adjusted with the lever.

Looks like a great idea you have to accomplish this, adjust with a lever but from the cab LOL !

I will say this, these implements with levers, you have to use care, I raised up a #25 MF disc harrow and the darned lever caught the end of one of the remote valves, bent the thick bracket it is mounted to. They are real close to the back of the tractor, one has to be very careful and move the levers enough so they do not catch.

I finally got a nice disc harrow, same brand, 201 flex-o-hitch, thing did a great job on that garden patch, believe it is 10' wide, perfect size for this tractor, balanced quite well.

(reply to post at 11:55:26 11/19/20)

Click to expand...

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Thanks for posting that. How on earth did you get that long of
video to post

Your welcome. I dont know, Ive only had varying degrees of success at posting videos of any kind recently.