Dirty boards

The Agrarian

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Northern Ireland
Hi folks. Mind if i ask a commercial ploughing question? All advice welcome.

Sporadic problems on this farm keeping the boards on the plough running clean. Sometimes it's just one side. We wonder is it going from heavier land to light land, as it doesn't happen so much on the return journey. Most commonly happenson the front board, but could be on any. The plough is overum dx5 with full disks and skims and xl boards are nearly new.

Plough set as best I can. Pulling straight, toplink dead in line behind tractor. Same depth front and back. Correct width of front furrow. Plough perpendicular to land.

Today I was ploughing stubble at 14". 6-7" deep. 7kph was optimum speed for getting front furrow to drop in the right place. Was running clean. Changed to 16" Midway, and started to get a dirty front board. Perhaps just chance....
 

wuddy

Member
Location
Scottish Borders
The moisture content of light soil can make all the difference. Once had two ploughing matches in the same field three weeks apart couldn’t get my plough to work properly at all the first match went back to the second one and lifted the overall the only difference was three days rain. You say your boards are nearly new how much have you done with them?
 

The Agrarian

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Northern Ireland
Boards have done about fifty acres. Had to take the paint off with a flappy disc as it was a nightmare. I did go carefully to make sure I didn't score the surface. I've ploughed 13 acres last week and the boards ran clean. One of those fields last year ran dirty on one side if I recall, but not this year. But last year was ploughed out of lea, stubble this time. Lots of variables. Moisture is possibly a factor. We're in a persistent rainfall area, so more often than not ground is pretty damp. Anything I'd be ploughing is usually a decent medium loam, ranging from lighter over the knowes to heavier in the hollow. But not very heavy, judging by some of the photos I see on here. It's all pasture land by right so it all has a loamy top on it of some degree. The stuff that looks heavy is sticky and wet as much as anything. Horsepower is never an issue really. Grip is always the limiting factor. Always runout of grip before power. Tractor is 160hp on 650's. Its not heavy. 5.3 ton, plus one ton on the front arms. Tyres at 15psi. I know you might recommend less pressure, but my inclination is that it needs that to carry the plough. It's a very heavy plough and very long. (I learned to plough on a KV 3+1rev 14" and it was only a toy beside the overum).

I'll be ploughing again tomorrow and will take some pics. Thanks for your help. Ploughing is something I'd like to learn to do well.
 

Boohoo

Member
Location
Newtownabbey
If only the front board is running dirty and the depth is even across all furrows I'd say your front furrow is too wide. The ploughing might look level, but you're probably taking a bit extra with the front one to fill the hole left by your 650s.
 

Boohoo

Member
Location
Newtownabbey
If any boards going to he dirty, it'll he the front, but I also cleaned others yesterday.
It must be too dry if it's sticking to all of the boards, you should've ploughed it while it was still skitter!
In all seriousness, there's some ground that just sticks whatever you do with it, flush points helped on the KV I used to use, but didn't cure the problem completely.
 
Lift one up so it's only cutting 1" to 2" especially the front one
May not make any difference but if you just do the one it's not much effort ...no improvement put it back down or lower
I have on occasions had to take the discs off but more in dry .long .rounduped grass
 

Roy Stokes

Member
Location
East Shropshire
Skimming shallower may also help, putting more pressure with a fuller furrow slice against the board also slacken back the mould board stays to make the board less abrupt, but as Boohoo says, some land just won't run,
 

Ley253

Member
Location
Bath
For what its worth, intermittent sticking on the front body of my KV match plough, in Hampshire chalk and flint was cured by lifting the front disk an inch or so.
 

Roy Stokes

Member
Location
East Shropshire
What do you think about leaning over into the work, or away from it?

Is that sacrilege?

Leaning it in to work will increase the pressure at the top of the board and give you better packing of the furrows but whether it will help your situation I would think will depend on where it builds up on the board, front first, yes it might, rear first, no, as for tilting it away from work, probably decrease the pressure on the board and stick more, but try it anyway, you can always put it back
 

Ray996

Member
Location
North Scotland
Hi folks. Mind if i ask a commercial ploughing question? All advice welcome.

Sporadic problems on this farm keeping the boards on the plough running clean. Sometimes it's just one side. We wonder is it going from heavier land to light land, as it doesn't happen so much on the return journey. Most commonly happenson the front board, but could be on any. The plough is overum dx5 with full disks and skims and xl boards are nearly new.

Plough set as best I can. Pulling straight, toplink dead in line behind tractor. Same depth front and back. Correct width of front furrow. Plough perpendicular to land.

Today I was ploughing stubble at 14". 6-7" deep. 7kph was optimum speed for getting front furrow to drop in the right place. Was running clean. Changed to 16" Midway, and started to get a dirty front board. Perhaps just chance....
What other type of plough have you used in the past?
 

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quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

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