What Kind of Plow?

[GreenAcres]

I need to get a plow to plow up about 4 acres of land. Our soil is clay. After plowing, the land will be disked.


I've recently escaped from a life spent in the city, so please bear with me while I ask what will probably sound like a stupid question.


But what kind of plow would I want? Is it a one bottom plow? Two bottom plow? Chisel plow? Or something else?


Thank you in advance for sharing your expertise and insights.

 

[Egon]

Ahh- The answers may kinda depend on what's gona pull the plow.

Egon

 

[Tractors4u]

If you plan on running a disc over it you will need a turning plow. Now, do you need a one or two bottom and in what size? Like Egon said, what are you gonna pull the plow with?

 

[beenthere]

I would like to help, as would others. But I must ask, do you have something to pull a plow? or is that part of the question? Yours wasn't a stupid question (IMO), just lacking a bit of information. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif (Ahh, I see I was a bit slow at typing). /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

Four acres with a one bottom can be done, but it will seem like 'forever'. I'd just remember that years ago people plowed more land than that with a one bottom plow pulled by horses. But that isn't now.

A small CUT (25-30 hp) will handle a one bottom in clay, and a larger 35-40 hp will handle a two bottom plow. I would look for a neighbor farmer to come in with a larger tractor and plow to get the 4 acres ready for you to work it up and plant.

Buying a plow just to do 4 acres (taking into consideration that setting up a plow to plow right is a chore, and an art, in itself) is an admiral but tough way to spend a few days in the spring.

I have a one-bottom plow, but I would still not take on that task of plowing up 4 acres with it. I would seek the farmers' help from down the road first.

 

[Cecil]

Hi Green,

There are basically 3 types of plows -- the disk plow, chisel plow and the mouldboard plow. The disk plow, commonly referred to as an "offset disk" is a massive unit that requires some serious pulling power. I don't believe anyone has tried to scale that down to CUT sizes.

Next in line is the chisel plow, which as the name implies, is a set of chisels, sometimes with twisted shanks, that go down into the soil and turn it. These require a lot of puliing power as well because they generally have several shanks in staggard locations covering the width (or more) of the tractor. One of the main advantages of the chisel plow is that it leave organic matter on the surface to reduce erosion.

That leaves the mouldboard plow. As the name suggests, this has a molded board that cuts and turns a slice of soil, burying the organic matter. You pick the size of the plow based on the number of "bottoms" and the size of the mouldboard. Growing up, I covered a lot of acres with a 5x14 plow behind an old Oliver 99. The "5" refers to 5 bottoms, with the "14" meaning a 14" width of cut (or the size of the mouldboards). Bigger tractors might pull a 7x16, smaller would pull a 3 or 4 bottom plow.

So you're probably after a mouldboard plow, the number of bottoms will depend on the pulling power you have. Keep in mind that to plow 4 acres with, say, a 2 bottom plow, you're looking at an all day job. Unless this is something you will be doing every year, you might want to hire it out.

A little more info about the tractor you have to pull the plow would help to get to specifics.

 

[GreenAcres]

I ordered a 40 hp, 4WD New Holland tractor with standard tranny, R4 tires (filled 75% with methanol) and draft control kit installed.

I do not have the tractor yet, dealer said it would be four days getting it and another week or more to customize it and get it ready for delivery.

Hope this answers your question.

 

[Egon]

And again another question that should have been asked last time.

What will be done agriculturally with the four acres on an ongoing basis?

Egon

 

[GreenAcres]

My wife wants to grow organic veggies on the land.

Actually, she will split it into two plots. On one plot she will grow veggies. On the second plot, she will grow "green manure," that is, plants that she can plow under to enrich the soil.

The next year she will switch the plots -- grow green manure where veggies grew last year, and grow veggies in the plot where the green manure grew the year before.

 

[theboman]

That's a big ol' garden in 2 acres!

 

[RalphVa]

I just took an organic gardening class. At the end of the class, the instuctor invited us out to his 5 acre farm that he'd just bought. He has about 2 acres out of the 5 in cultivation. He put a cover crop on in the fall and then tills it with a BCS tiller (12 hp) followed by a plow to scoop out walking paths with a furrow plow on the BCS every 4 feet. He plans to make a living with it, selling the organic veggies. This is his own. Before, he and his wife were making a living on rental land.

He rented a tractor to do the original plowing.

I've a Gravely rotary plow. There are a lot of them used because generally folks only use them on new ground and then don't use them any more. They then go to a tiller, as my instructor did. The Gravely plow mechanism can also drive a tiller.

As part of the class, we also got a field trip to Twin Oaks organic farm where 100 people live off the land. They used to use a big tractor for their fields but gave it up because it compacts the soil too much. They now just use a tiller and scoop out paths every 4 feet to walk down or to run a wheel barrow down with a shovel.

Ralph