Plowing advice

I'm just wondering what the best way to go about plowing under corn stalks is?  I have a few small fields (1 acre and 3 acres in corn stalks)?  Would it be best to run over the field once with a disk to chop everything up a bit first?  The field was harvested with a corn picker last year so there are some variances in stalk height here and there if that matters.
 I will be using a #73 semi mount SC plow hitched to my WD45.

Also I acquired another field for next year that is about 3 acres as well.  It is pretty heavy grass and hasn't been tilled in years.  Once again I was thinking of mowing it down and hitting it with the disk first then plowing it under.  Any advice on this type of ground?

Pretty much all of my experience back home was chisel plowing corn stalks in the fall and disking in the spring so I am new to the moldboard plowing game.
I wish we still had the chisel but it got sold at Grandpa's sale.  We bought a combine last year and mom would kill dad if he bought anything else for a while, ha ha.


Thanks for any and all help.  I'm pretty excited, considering I pay 150$ for renting all of it, I think I can have a good year next year.  Its not a lot of acreage but I have fun with it.

On the corn stalks, you could take a bushhog or batwing blade type mower or a flail type stalk chopper to size all the material, then plow it.  If you disc them first, you will need a heavy-good cutting disc to do a decent job.  Once disked, you have loose soil which gives less traction for out of the furrow drive wheel.

On the grass land, call your local fire department and schedule a controlled burn-off of the grass.  Local fire fighters usually like the chance to help out.  You could then just no-til it without having to plow & work the ground?

 

discing stalks ain't so bad if you got time for a few rains to settle the dirt.as said the loose soil don't help traction plowing but if it's a 3 bttm behind a 45 it shouldn't pull so hard as to cause much trouble.if the ground is dry it won't make that much difference whether it's disced or not for traction.back in the day we used to disc standin stalks and plow.this was all spring work.

Edited by Steve M C/IL - 19 Mar 2011 at 11:28pm

I guess you could burn it off like Eric said, we never did because of fire maybe jumping to other fields, and DO NOT disc sod before plowing because it will be harder to do a nice job. We always disced stalks in the spring before plowing and did not have traction problems except if it rained and was too wet anyway. With a #73 plow and your traction booster set right, that should not be an issue anyway. I still recomend the wires or the burndown for the sod. Fifty years of moldboarding has to count for something!!!! But as Dan7080 said if you have to disc something, do it somewhere other than on the sod. Have fun, and learn, that's what it's all about!!

Nope, now, before you plow is the time to level the ground. Just disc the ground on a 45 degree, more or less, doesn't matter, to fill in the ruts. I would probably do it two ways to get them leveled out. Shoot, you keep on you're going to be a plowman yet!

Only disk I have is a 12ft tandem.  I suppose it will have to do.  Dad said it was a good disk for filling in deadfurrows, maybe it will work as good on ruts.
I think my Uncle has an offset, but its probably way too big to even get into my tiny fields.
I have to go through a gate to get to one field and the markers scrape either side on my old IH 56 corn planter.  That's why I rent it so cheap, all the big farmers around here can't even get in!

I wouldn't burn either the grass or stalks first------they will add to the tilth of the soil.
Before you get carried away spending time and fuel disking the fields, I would try the plow first.  If the stalks give problems, see if you can find a small stalk chopper or rotary mower to run over the field with first.