to plow or not.. turning old pasture

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

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..

Edited by RSponenberg - 01 Apr 2011 at 2:11pm

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!

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.

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.

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.........

CTuckerNWIL wrote: 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.

 That is why they made cultipackers, to beat down those bricks.

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.

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.

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.