Hello! New here!

hello everyone im kinda new here ive read lots just never posted. I recently bought a ford 4000 from my uncle (hoosierhog) and a few implements. And my inexperience shows i need some help

first question
i was using a 2bottom plow behind my tractor and i thought i was doing well till i tried to disc it down. My plow is turning the soil well but man are there huge piles. my tractor is a good size with an 8ft wheel disc and the turned earth is so big in place the tractor bottoms out if that makes any sense. I got online and watch some videos of others plowing and they have nice neat furrows with the turned earth neatly layed upside down. Mine in some places is 2ft tall and no were neer of nicely turned. also is a 2 bottom two small for a ford 4000? thanks alot

Were you plowing sod?

yes it was sod. its a 4 acre field that used to have 600 plus norway pines in it that were 6ft tall i sold the pines and i was left with 600 holes to fill in. ive plowed in the these wholes before as i sold trees but i only made 2 passes down and back on each side of the holes. now that i finaly got all the trees out i want to make it a hay field so i was plowing shut the last of the holes 600 of them and started plowing the rest of the field wich is sod.

Well with those holes, you're probably going to have quite a problem getting it to level out nice enough for a hayfield. You definitely don't want to have a bumpy hayfield. I'd say maybe you need to find someone with a really big tractor to subsoil it or chisel plow it really deep to loosen the soil evenly, and then disc it down with a bigger disc. Some of these other guys might be able to give you some better options though.

Youd be supprised at how well they fill in. normally when they came to take trees they would take 100-150 and all in a row so i would run the mold board down one side and back up the other throwing the dirt in and then disc it down and you would never know there where trees or holes there worked great problem plowing is now that the trees are gone and im making more than 2 passes. Trying to plow the whole field it looks like im just tearing up the ground there are huge clods and chunks of sod that dint turn all the way and its a rough ride tring to disc it down. ive only plowed the area the trees were so far and some further out into the open portion where the trees were taken last year but im deffinatly doing somthing wrong. i know people farmed with smaller tractors back in the day and my plow is probably ment for a 8N and i cant imagine a 8N trying to disc this down i doubt it would even be able to drive through it. but i need to figure out what im doing wrong before i do the rest of the field. r

How deep were the holes?

Did you put dirt in the holes?

The holes will add a lot of dips in a hay field.

Since its sod, let what you plow dry up and the grass and roots to die off. Then plow it the other direction to break up the roots and clods some more. You can run the disk over it also in opposite directions every time to level and bust the dirt more.

The land that they use for plow days has been moved or disturb every year so plows really easily and looks nice.

the holes were 2ft wide and about a foot to 18nches deep and about 6-8 feet apart and each row as 16 ft apart. it would take a lot of fill dirt to fill in the holes so no i just plow them shut it works well
but i think you may be right.
Ill try plowing the other direction and ill just keep discing i will get it done. I may try the plow on some that had beans in it this year just to see the diffrence between plowing sod and a field that is well worked. And i may have to have my neighbor use his big tractor and chisel it before i try to plant to avoid and dips. thanks for your help

"Youd be supprised at how well they fill in. normally when they came to take trees they would take 100-150 and all in a row so i would run the mold board down one side and back up the other throwing the dirt in and then disc it down and you would never know there where trees or holes"

This is called a backfurrow. What sort of pattern are you using to plow the rest of the field. It kind of sounds like you are making one backfurrow next to another.

Could you use a back blade to level it out some and then disk it?

Hoosierhog2,

Here's a couple of things that come to mind:

1. How deep are you plowing? If you're going more than about 4 - 6 inches the sod that you're turning over could end up pretty bumpy.

2. How fast are you going? If your ground speed is varying, you could end up with some sod that is turned over and some that isn't turned over completely.

3. What kind of ground are you plowing and how long has it been since it was last plowed? Clay or highly compacted soil will turn over very unevenly.

4. Are there roots in the ground from the trees? If so, they too will make the turn of the soil uneven.

Those cool photos of neatly plowed ground with straight furrows are usually in fields that are consistently plowed, disked, and dragged year after year so the soil turns pretty evenly.

You might not be doing anything "wrong", it might just be the conditions you're working in.

Good luck. Be patient. Disk it more than once to help smooth out the roughness. Drag it.

Tom in TN

after plowing and disking you may try to find a small field cultivator and drive on an angle across the furrows, you may even have to go the other direction too, going to take some time but stay at it because if you plant it to hay you will fight all the bumps and dips for several years. Also the freeze and thaw of a winter will help some, good luck!

If you could post a picture of what you plowed it might help.We could see what your doing wrong.

You may be unpleasantly surprised at how rough it is next summer if you seed it down now. Though you may get the surface smooth, the bottom will not be so you will get a lot more settling, and thus a depression wherever there was a tree. Do you know any one who may want to plant some corn for two or three years? They would probably replow it after the first harvest because the tip of the spout of the chopper would be waving around too much to get much into their dump wagon.

Welcome aboard from a fellow newbie in western IL, I just joined a few days ago!

Make sure these things are set correctly:
The plow will have a specific cutting width per moldboard. This is measured from beam to beam at 90 degrees to the furrow. It will be 14" 16" or 18". This size is important when setting it up.
When plowing the second pass, the right front and rear wheels will be in the furrow made by the first pass (assumes a wide front end). Put the plow in the ground and the wheels in the furrow. go forward about 20 feet in the furrow. Stop the tractor with the plow in the ground, and shut it down for a few minutes.

Use a tape measure to measure between the left vertical edge of the furrow (behind the rear tire in the furrow) to the colter on the first mold board (disk like splitting unit in front of the shiny moldboard.) This measurement must be very close to the same as the plow size determined above. If it is way off wide, or narrow, it will be necessary to adjust the tractor wheel width to get it to the plow cut. Adjust the wheels (front and rear) in or out the difference of the measurements.

Next measure the depth of each of the two points from the surface of the ground, to the cutting tip of the plow point. they should be within 1/2 inch of each other and about 6 to 7 inches deep. You will need to dig them out to find them with a tile spade or hand trowel. If they are at different depths, the right rear three point link must be adjusted to make them level with the tractor in the furrow.

If these terms are unclear, you are going to need a helper on site that has plowed before. The tree pits are a problem, but a rented box blade will fill them pronto. Then plowing is easy.

Best of luck, plow setting is not difficult if you already know how!!!

Jim

I will try to post a pic tomorrow evening

And i think i understand all the measurements you all were talking about. the plow is a 14in and its a old ferguson AO-14 I think. I dont know how to move my wheels in. It doesnt apear to be able to move in any more but then again im a newbie so maybe there is some room there to move them. right now the wheels are set so they measure roughly 6ft apart from outside to outside. And i will measure the plow points n the furrow to make sure they are even i think they are but i will check

I didnt think about the holes settling over time
I do have a neighbor who would like to put in some beans and he would chisel plow every year but
id rather not cause well you all might think im crazy but i dont like round up. no reason why but it doesnt seem smart to spray somthing that kills so much stuff and then eat what doesnt and im worried it would kill our bees we have several hives. but i would be intrested in planting somthing else and i could use my neighbors bigger equipment

thanks you guys are a big help

Thanks for all the help guys

I made sure all the measurements were right but i need to move my tires in some and i have no clue how to do that but ill ask my farmer nieghbor friend for help with that. I just kept going over and over the clods of sod with the disc and its slowly starting to look much better and not be as rough of a ride. I think its just that sod sucks to plow i tried a spot in the old bean field and it was much better. any ways thanks so much you all were a big help.