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Plowing fineness

P

Plumcrazy

Member
Dad had me fitting fields in front of him while he planted when I was 10. When I was 12, he taught me the "right" way to plow. If the large field has a furrow on the edge from last year, you make your back furrow at 75 paces, then plow till the lands are the same size, then turn to the left and plow the ground out to the fence. If there isn't a furrow on the edge, you pace 25 paces, make your back furrow, and plow to the fence. Then it's 75 paces to the next back furrow. That way all your lands are 50 paces wide when done. Anyone else learn to do it that way?
 
Yup that"s the way we did it, except we went 60 and 90 paces instead of your 50-75.

Plowing the opposite direction of the year before kept the field level.

Gary
 
When I was plowing with the Oliver 88 and a 3 btm plow, it was 25-75. With the 770 and the four btm, we went to 30/90.
 
I can see the results of years of plowing inwards only on one of my fields, big ditches at the uphill edge.

On another part of my property that has grown over with trees, you can see the dead furrow in the middle from plowing out the last time before ww2 then all the boys didn't come home to do it again.
 
That's the way we did it too here in NW Iowa. The lands were wider in later years when we had bigger plows on faster tractors. Jim
 
We were careful to plow reverse every year, plowing into dead furrows, out off the back furrows to try to keep the fields level. Then Dad rented the land for several years. Renters weren't careful to keep lands in appropriate places. I'm now opening up some of the fields, and plowing diagonally to try to level out. Also tilling diagonally with disk and cultivators. Not completely successful, but some help. Have a new (to me) field cultivator which should help a bunch, as it covers a fairly wide pass. Disking really doesn't level things out as much as you would think it would.
 
A field cultivator is the best leveler because it drags the soil but it does take many years to completely level a bad job of plowing. I have a neighbor who farms one way, north/south, every year with the same implements. He never does any diagonal farming. His fields are as ridgy as anything I've ever seen. When he combines his soybeans you can see the taller stubble in the valleys of the ridges. It'll take more than a lifetime to level it back out with conventional farm equipment. Jim
 
I envy you guys.

Our fields are all shaped like soup bones.

And as another poster said - you can walk down in the woods and see where the old timers plowed the last round with their teams - way past where I'd want to tip my tractor.

Paul
 
Well when we plowed with the cat and 4 bottom we plowed around the field. Start in the middle on the dead furrow plow till it got to wide to drive across then plow around. This way the dead furrows were shorter. Helped to keep from having white beans drowning with water standing after a hard rain. When we went to 6 bottom it wouldn't turn good plowing around so went to plowing in lands. About 10 acres to the land or larger depending on the field. Now just chisel plow at an angle one way one year and opposite the next. Other tillage is done in the opposite direction to the first one.
 
So steep around here, you always throw the furrows uphill. Disc once, springtooth harrow once or doublecross and the soil has worked downhill enough to be as before.
 
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