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Farming Practices
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We have chosen to use a chisel plow rather than the traditional moldboard plow. The main reason for this is the tendency of the moldboard to form a hardpan, or compaction of the soil, beneath the surface which hinders root development, drainage, and soil
tilth.
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Chisel Plow |
In an ideal situation we would not have to plow at all, but we need to sow cover crops as green manures in our soil-building program, and this old field needs to be worked over well so we can start planting buckwheat and rye.
This 2-shank chisel plow may not look like much (people ask us What the heck IS that?) , but it rips through the soil with power, loosening and aerating and leaving the residue on the surface.
Ben got pretty good at reckoning exactly where to set the rows so the shanks would make alternately parallel rows. We thought it would take days to plow the field with the 2-shank, but it went pretty fast-- what a relief! ( Kind of a rough ride, though.)
We also have a little offset disc to help break up the clods and residue left after plowing.
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Disc |
The field will have to be disced two times before planting.
The final job is harrowing- Lori is the Harrow Queen, she likes to make the field all nice and smooth. |
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