to plow or not.. turning old pasture
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Topic: to plow or not.. turning old pasture
Posted By: AaronH
Subject: to plow or not.. turning old pasture
Date Posted: 01 Apr 2011 at 1:47pm
| I have about 25 acres of pasture I am going to put crops on this year. Been pasture for nearly 30 yrs. What is the general concensus here? do I moldboard plow it, or just chisel and disc the heck out of the sod? Im prolly going to use roundup on it either way to make sure the existing grass/ sod dies. Is there any old school advice, or advantage either way? Thanks |
Replies:
Posted By: GlenninPA
Date Posted: 01 Apr 2011 at 1:52pm
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Plowing old pasture is about the most fun way to make your tractor work that you can find.
After a stint of pasture plowing with a hand lift B, I start to wonder why I like to have so much fun, and why I didn't just stay home on the couch. LOL
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Posted By: RSponenberg
Date Posted: 01 Apr 2011 at 2:07pm
| Like GlenninPA says plowing is fun and will make your tractor work,but I like to plow my heavy sod in the fall and let the freezing and thawing of winter help break it down.. I would spray,disc or chisel or both if you want to plant it this year.. |
Posted By: Lonn
Date Posted: 01 Apr 2011 at 2:10pm
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If I were to start cropping my pasture it would get plowed. Depends on the soil type I guess. ------------- -- --- .... .- -- -- .- -.. / .-- .- ... / .- / -- ..- .-. -.. . .-. .. -. --. / -.-. .... .. .-.. -.. / .-. .- .--. .. ... - Wink I am a Russian Bot |
Posted By: Rawleigh
Date Posted: 01 Apr 2011 at 2:22pm
| Spray it, chop it, plow it, then disc it!! Discing sod is not going to give you acceptable results unless you have a very heavy offset disc and a large FWD tractor! |
Posted By: bill2260
Date Posted: 01 Apr 2011 at 2:29pm
| You should consider the lay of the land. How steep? Field shapes. Could have lot of erosion of too steep. May want to consider strip cropping or contour strips. Bill |
Posted By: jaybmiller
Date Posted: 01 Apr 2011 at 3:20pm
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My vote is to plow it twice.First against the natural flow of water, to allow rain to seep in and start breaking down the sod chunks.. After 10-14 days(or when the sod dies), plow the 'normal' or preferred direction. wait 10-14 days, then disc it down.
Mind you I've got lots of time on my hands amd enjoy ANY excuse to be on the D-14! ------------- 3 D-14s,A-C forklift, B-112 Kubota BX23S lil' TOOT( The Other Orange Tractor) Never burn your bridges, unless you can walk on water |
Posted By: Dave in il
Date Posted: 01 Apr 2011 at 3:33pm
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I would let it green up spray Roundup for a burndown, notill soybeans and spray round up again. Works real good in sod.
However plowing is fun, but expensive, and around here spring plowing doesn't work as well as fall plowing.
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Posted By: CTuckerNWIL
Date Posted: 01 Apr 2011 at 3:49pm
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Back when I was a kid, nobody fall plowed, there wasn't time to. We plowed sod in the spring every year. Just don't turn it over while it's wet or it will bake like a brick and you'll have a mess.
------------- http://www.ae-ta.com" rel="nofollow - http://www.ae-ta.com Lena 1935 WC12xxx, Willie 1951 CA6xx Dad bought new, 1954WD45 PS, 1960 D17 NF |
Posted By: Mid-GA Outdoor
Date Posted: 01 Apr 2011 at 4:20pm
| for my garden, i plowed in January of this year. if it hasnt been turned in a while, depending on the size of the tractor, get urself a 3 or 4 botton plow and go to it. i have a d17 now and i plan to get a 4 bottom in the future. this year tho i plowed with a middlebuster and a '42 Ford 9N. also did a garden for a customer this way and he was pleased with the results. plowed with 9N and harrowed with a Mitsubishi D1650 that i just sold and got the D17. just my thoughts. PS what r u planting? |
Posted By: Creek Jenkins
Date Posted: 01 Apr 2011 at 4:46pm
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Charlie - you are leaving yourself wide open there - I had a reply written with dinosaurs and cavemen as part of it, but then I relented.........
cheers,
Creek
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Posted By: TexasAllis
Date Posted: 01 Apr 2011 at 5:57pm
| Depends on the soil. On my place with heavy clay I used a ripper about 18 inces deep to break the hardpan, plowed then disked yielded the best results. There was a noticable difference where I did not use the ripper. |
Posted By: R Aiken
Date Posted: 01 Apr 2011 at 6:13pm
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CTuckerNWIL wrote:Posted By: John (C-IL)
Date Posted: 01 Apr 2011 at 7:49pm
| You will be wasting your time trying to disc it. I'm in the kill it with roundup and notil beans camp. Next year the field will literally work like a garden. Plowing will be a waste of fuel and 25 years of hard earned organic matter. |
Posted By: mtanut
Date Posted: 01 Apr 2011 at 7:58pm
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Other option is round up then no till buckwheat on it. Buckwheat will loosen it right up with minimal fertilizer and lime requirements. Just something else to mull over. ------------- I have a 185 Allis, 6060 Allis, Model K gleaner, SMTA ferg 35, ferg 20 (paps first tractor, Allis B (wife's)John Deere 240 skid loader and a bunch of the usual farm stuff. |
Posted By: NickT(Ky)
Date Posted: 01 Apr 2011 at 8:14pm
| No-till. $4 dollar diesel there is no other way! |
Posted By: Dipstick In
Date Posted: 01 Apr 2011 at 9:51pm
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Plow it! But plow at least 8 inches deep amd disc it light the first time the same direction you plowed. then you can disc it on an angle to further level it. Been plowing since I was 12 and I'm now 70. That's how we always did it years ago. If you chisel it, you will leave too much sod on top and will be fighting the clumps. You will still have some but they shouldn't be a big of a problem. Do not disc it before plowing as that will create more clumps. ------------- You don't really have to be smart if you know who is! |
Posted By: farmer_rob
Date Posted: 01 Apr 2011 at 10:44pm
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i would spray it with round-up the no-till beans into it. alot more money ahead. im renting 80 acres of hay ground from my father-in-law this yr which hasnt been plowed for almost 60 yrs. never had any other crop but but hay ------------- if farming was easy everybody would be doing it |
Posted By: Amos
Date Posted: 02 Apr 2011 at 6:36pm
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I am not a believer in the moldbourd plow. I no till all my beans and just a minimum tillage for all my corn. That said, I will share with you my experience (this is also what my Dad told me (and still tels me) for years, about 30 or so...). I have chisel plowed, disced and no tilled pastures and hay fields. They all grew fairly decent yields of both corn and beans. The chisel plowed ground required two discings and one pass with a c tine cultivator, two passes with the cultivator would have been better but I had had enough of working the ground, I burned this field down first and waited 7 days. Discing the pasture or hay field with first using a burn down was also a lot of time spent on the disc and then following with the cultivator a couple of times. Both of these crops were not as high of yiled or standability as my minimum till and not till crops in the field right beside them. I have plowed down pasture without a burndown and with a burndown (also hay fields have been done the same way) I hate saying this, but, these were my best yields of corn and beans and also the best standing farms and the funny part of it all was I only made one pass with the cultivator, and they were almost as smooth as glass, and then planted. There was a noticeable difference in the level/smoothness of the farms after plowing as opposed to not plowing methods. I am a believer in my Dads idea of the plow only as it saves time in the same year you plow and the following (the yield is also not lying). I am talking about sand ground with this as well. I do have heavy clay farms that we have found plowing every other year is a real good way of keeping the ground consistent to work with. One last thing, a plow is not a speed implement (like a cultivator) set it up to give you a perfect furrow at one speed where it does a nice job and stay at that speed. You will thank yourself for doing so only after having to work a bad job up a few extra times to get it smooth. I have plowed over 120 acres of hay and pasture in the spring some years after cutting a crop of hay off it and planted corn following to a great crop of sileage and combine some just to see what it was like and it was good grain corn as well. |