Creating spring seed bed on freshly ploughed heavy land.

[Feldspar]

That wants grassing down .

It is funny soil, but it does behave beautifully when you leave a month or two between the plough and the power harrow.

You won't believe it, but that field was drilled the day I took that photo. I remember refusing to drive the maschio in a mixture of disgust and despair. Ended up a surprisingly good bit of wheat such that I had to slightly eat my hat.

That field was spring beans ploughed up and then the seedbed forced a week later. Nearby field (same soil) we left and no-tilled wheat in with a 750a which looked like this:

Rolled the slots closed and ended up with some cracking wheat. That horrible looking field with the maschio in was about 2-3 tonnes a hectare down for a lot more hassle.

 

[herman]

All land isn't the same, we find it better to plough our spring land just before we need it. Ours is heavy opencast land that if ploughed over winter would take forever to dry out, it just traps wet in the furrow bottom and it may look dry and have an excellent frost mould but underneath it is a wet cold slop. We have tried sub soiling pre plough and min tilling from stubble in the spring but it won't dry out easily, admittedly not every field and spring are the same but we have learnt this over the years.
If we can catch it right it works down easily but make no mistake if it bakes you are in a lot of trouble, spud land is always after over wintered stubbles so it can't be worked, sprayed, or mucked until 14th February. If we have any baking issues we get the double press on it Asap.