Moldboard Plowing newbie question

[Green4Me]

Here's a couple of things I learned while working for my neighbor,plowing, many years ago. When you make the first pass down the center and then return throwing the furrow together, it is called a back furrow. When you start on the outside and work in, the valley created by the last passes is called a dead furrow. Each year when you plow alternate your dead furrows and back furrows. In other words, where you created a dead forrow, next year start there with a back furrow. This is to keep your field from getting hills and valleys over the years. Another trick he did was, when the field was all plowed he would go back to each dead furrow and make back furrow to throw the soil back into the valley. After the field was disked and worked up his fields always remained flat. In a garden sized plot it is even more important. If you plow the same way every year you will wind up with a hill or a valley in the center of the garden. Probably no one cares about this stuff anymore, but those old timers knew.

 

[dberg]

Medic,

I don't want to plow wet ground, It rained here on Monday and Tuesday of this week, what I meant was, if it didn't stop raining the ground would not be dry enough to plow. thanks to everyone that replied for the info on plowing methods. I forgot to mention in first post that I will be plowing a 9 acre hay field.

 

[Egon]

If the moleboards are rusty perhaps try sanding them before you start. Take care and adjust the plough properly as soon as you start.
Happy ploughing

Egon /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[JerryG]

<font color="blue"> If the moleboards are rusty perhaps try sanding them before you start. </font>
Before he gets around the field once, they will shine.

 

[coveredbridge]

</font><font color="blueclass=small">( Drive a straight line if able....by looking at a stationary point at the far end of that field, and keeping that stationary point between your legs and NOT THE CENTER OF THE TRACTOR. )</font>

I'm curious, what do you mean by keeping the stationary point between your legs and not the center of the tractor. How would you do that? And why would the two points be different? When I'm plowing (or mowing) I always try to keep the center of the hood on the tractor on the stationary point. In fact, I have a distinct memory of my Dad telling me, "keep the radiator cap (on the Ford) pointed at that tree". What were we doing wrong? It seems to work. /forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif

 

[coveredbridge]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( Dberg,

This may help, it is the instructions from my 10" moldboard that I bought a couple of years ago. Hopefully you will be able to see as the scan was very large and I had to use Pixresizer to reduce to post. If you cannot read, send me a PM and I can email them to you. )</font>

Yep, that's the way I was taught. Start in the middle and work your way out. If the field's too big (so that moving from one side to the other takes too long) break up the field into smaller pieces

 

[ronbo3]

I didn't know Lowes sold 3pt stuff. I'm going to pay them a visit this weekend and see if my local store has plows or can order one for me.

 

[surfran]

ronbo3,

They don't sell 3-point, I neglected to mention that the one I have is a sleeve hitch style. I built an adaptor using a 2" receiver for it. I had the unit for my old Cub Garden Tractor which was a sleeve hitch, so I didn't see any reason to go buy a new one when I got the Kubota.

The normal price at the time was $190 or so if I recall (it had originally been $160 ish when I first started looking at it but two years later it had gone up before they clearanced it back down).