Plowing (pics)

[nspec]

Is there anything more fun to do with a tractor than plowing? Here's a few pics of my handywork from this morning. This is virgin ground. It's been stumped and leveled a bit, but never turned. I've got a Kubota B2630 with unloaded R-4's and I left the loader on. Used the diff. lock the whole time, though I probably didn't need to.

My plow is a very early 40's Ferguson single 16" extra deep bottom. I'm plowing pretty deep - about 9-10 inches. The tractor does fine. Doesn't even struggle. A little messing around and I had her set up perfect. Plow tracked straight as an arrow and didn't want to steer me at all. I'd like to try a 2-12 sometime. I even turned up a couple of basketball sized rocks.

It's mesmerizing watching the ground roll off the plowshare. I could do it all day. I haven't been on a plow tractor since the 80's, and I was just a kid. We were running a Deere 4020 powershift with a turbo and 5 bottom Kverneland.

Next time will be in a couple of months after the buckwheat has gone to flower. We'll see how it does then!

 

[k0ua]

Well I would say you did pretty well. I would love to try it, and have 7 acres, but its all wooded and a lot of it is quite steep, and the dirt is very shallow, over rock shelves. So no plowing for me, but I loved to see your nice looking plow, and the nice looking results.:thumbsup:

James K0UA.. In rocky Branson, Mo.

 

[TripleR]

There is a fairly recent post on how much people like to plow. It is a pretty much lost art around here. We stored an almost new 8 or 10 bottom moldboard plow for our renters for several years before they sold it. About all you could get for them was scrap metal price. There were a lot in barns and lots for years and now I don't know where there are any bigger than two or three bottom. We hung on to ours, but haven't used them in years either.

 

[bigbull338]

weve got a 5 bottom plow,an we havent used it in 25yrs.when we want to break anything up,we just use our big athens plowing disk.also have a chisel plow an leveling plow we havent used in years.

 

[bigtiller]

Nice straight rows, you have done this before. :thumbsup:

 

[Jay4200]

It's mesmerizing watching the ground roll off the plowshare. I could do it all day. I haven't been on a plow tractor since the 80's, and I was just a kid.

Problem comes when you're mesmerized looking at the ground, and you go a bit off course and crash into your wife's car. And boy, is she pissed.

'Course, that's more of a driveway raking thing. Not that I know about such stuff first hand...

JayC

 

[Agrantina]

Real nice-- for us guys dancing with flood water.. It is all we can do is sit here and dream of some seat time.. Have to admit that lookss real nice and a lot of FUN too...

AndyG

 

[nspec]

I understand why plowing isn't done so much anymore, but I still say it's really too bad. The big operations have deep rippers to get through the compaction, but for the little guy, plowing is really the only good option for deep tillage. I guess maybe a middlebuster, but I don't think it would take the abuse the plow will over the long haul.

For me, on such a small plot, I'm doing it because my tiller won't go down half as deep as the plow will. My plow is really huge for a single bottom. I've been averaging about 9-10 inches deep with the 16 inch plow, and she'll go even deeper. I could probably plow 10-12 inches without too much trouble. My way of thinking is some deep tillage will help. I realize I will probably get a hardpan layer, but the hardpan would be that much shallower if I used just the tiller. Rye will be sown every fall, and hoping those roots would break through the hardpan, so maybe too deep is bad.

Any thoughts?

 

[ZDB]

you could do a mustard or forage radish once in a while to break up hard pan.

Just make sure you don't let mustard go to seed or you'll have pretty yellow flowers forever!

 

[bobm6996]

Was reading this post and thought I would throw out a question. I bought a very old Case 2 bottom (16") plow last year. It is a pretty hard pull for my Mahindra 2615 gear 4WD,but it does a decent job. Very hard clay here in Indiana, was curious if I could remove the back plow and make it a one bottom, which I think would pull a lot easier, I could dig full depth. It would add a little time, but might allow me to do a better job and not put so much strain on the tractor.

 

[Kyle241]

Nice work. :thumbsup: Your plow looks in nice shape. I wish I could find an older single plow as there doesn't seem to be any available up this way and a new one is $700.

 

[wmonroe]

Nice work. :thumbsup: Your plow looks in nice shape. I wish I could find an older single plow as there doesn't seem to be any available up this way and a new one is $700.

Around here a plow that is in decent shape, not all welded together, is also hard to find. The few i have seen have been way too expensive. I don't need one, but it would be a lot more fun to plow and disc my wifes garden as opposed to renting a big rototiller.

 

[Chilly807]

You should be able to remove the rear bottom, and set up the remaining one as a single.

We found an old MF #62 2-12 last summer, a little bit of repair and she's in good shape.

I agree, it's one of the more satisfying jobs you can do with a tractor.

Here's a short video of the missus showing me how it's done..

YouTube - Ms. Chilly trying her hand at plowing with the 3400 and MF plow

Sean

 

[TripleR]

One of the most common mistakes I see in plowing is too slow ground speed.

 

[Chilly807]

And the pics I forgot to add...

 

[TripleR]

Very nice pictures.:thumbsup:

 

[Chilly807]

Thanks Larry,

The plow's not nearly so pretty now after sitting under two feet of snow most of the winter. I've got to find something that'll hang on to the shares for rustproofing, I tried Fluid Film with limited success. I don't want to paint them again since I have to grind it off every time I use the plow, but it only gets used a couple times a year. I guess I could paint them with grease, but I want to be sure I get it all off before I plow the garden again.

Sean

 

[TripleR]

Thanks Larry,

The plow's not nearly so pretty now after sitting under two feet of snow most of the winter. I've got to find something that'll hang on to the shares for rustproofing, I tried Fluid Film with limited success. I don't want to paint them again since I have to grind it off every time I use the plow, but it only gets used a couple times a year. I guess I could paint them with grease, but I want to be sure I get it all off before I plow the garden again.

Sean

We left ours out in the weather too, but it looked pretty rough even then as it doesn't get used much either. When I was farming, we would grease the shares when putting it away for the winter. In those pre-environmentally aware days, a little gas took the grease right off. After you run a plow for enough time the shares will look like chrome. We don't use ours enough for this to happen anymore, but really need to bring it up to the barn, do some maintenance and put it away. We have an old Ford two bottom and Massey Ferguson three bottom and it is a shame to just let them rust.

 

[nspec]

I have such high regard for mine that I upgraded it to "indoor storage" status.

 

[TripleR]

I have such high regard for mine that I upgraded it to "indoor storage" status.

We had ours stored indoors for years as none of our newer tractors were low enough to get to it. We finally had to tie a long chain to it and drag it out. Now we are going to have to find some place else to put it when we get it cleaned up.