Do you use a Power Harrow
- Thread starter Hereward
- Start date
This is not ok either, all tillage destroys soil, Power harrow one of the worst
We've been tilling the soil happily for 4000 years, why the sudden perturbation ( going to use this word a lot in future 
) in the last 5 years........since TFF started, in fact.
) in the last 5 years........since TFF started, in fact.We've been tilling the soil happily for 4000 years, why the sudden perturbation ( going to use this word a lot in future
Shallow tillage has been around for the last 4000 years , deep heavy tillage was an advent after the 2 Nd world war...
Funny thing I noticed 20 year ago a farm I go to used to be able to plough with 100 hp now they need 200 . Same plough same ploughman same everything . Only thing that's changed is more soil destruction.... Farmers are generally the path to their own disaster by the inability to accept they are wrong and need to change their ways .
The only things I would note are modern ploughs seem to need to go at least 8" deep to do a reasonable job turning the ground over, whereas horse drawn ploughs would make a decent job at 4-6" , and destoning work for spuds can't be good. To say power harrowing is the work of the devil, I think is a bit extreme.
Fraserb
Member
- Location
- Scottish Borders
We try to plough as shallow as possible but as you say, 7-8" is the minimum, you can get away with.
- Location
- Durham, UK
We run a maschio ph with accord drill as our drilling outfit. We used to plough then power harrow the soil to buggery with another power harrow. Then combi drill. Now we either do 2 passes with a lemken smaragd then lightly combi. Or plough, level with pig tines and rollers then combi.
Yes we are still using the ph under the drill but the land is only getting one ph pass rather than 3
Yes we are still using the ph under the drill but the land is only getting one ph pass rather than 3
- Location
- Lincolnshire
Having learned the job pulling all sorts of combinations of duck foot harrows laden with lorry wheels, discs and rollers over clods that you could strike matches on, the power Harrow, which did the work of three passes of all that old scrap with a single pass, was a godsend. It didn't bung up, get bogged down, or need a 40 m turning circle either.
Granted they shouldn't be overused but they are an extremely handy tool in certain circumstances. Many people go far too deep and far too slowly with them. I'm often doing 10k and just tickling the surface to produce a little tilth for the drill as well as levelling a bit so that my drilling depth will be consist do. The tractor wheels are half the tool and do the consolidation. If you go deep you will shake the tilth down till its under the clods which isn't what you want at all.
If I have a dry cloddy field I am more patient these days. Just wait for some rain ragged than go over and over it.
Granted they shouldn't be overused but they are an extremely handy tool in certain circumstances. Many people go far too deep and far too slowly with them. I'm often doing 10k and just tickling the surface to produce a little tilth for the drill as well as levelling a bit so that my drilling depth will be consist do. The tractor wheels are half the tool and do the consolidation. If you go deep you will shake the tilth down till its under the clods which isn't what you want at all.
If I have a dry cloddy field I am more patient these days. Just wait for some rain ragged than go over and over it.
Nah, I'll stick to orange juice, thanks.
Hindsight
Member
- Location
- Lincolnshire
We've been tilling the soil happily for 4000 years, why the sudden perturbation ( going to use this word a lot in future
Have you been playing strip Scrabble again!
- Location
- Darlington
Makes a lot of sense don't understand why more don't have it as an option.
- Location
- Darlington
Although I agree with your post entirely the no tillers won't. If I were to plough again I would go in search of one with 10" furrows and plough at 4" deep.
- Location
- Wiltshire
Power harrow is not necessary on most of my soil and I am a bit allergic to them. If my brother has his way we would power Harrow everything going into maize.
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Selectamatic
Member
- Location
- North Wales
Because it settles after you worked it, and, i feel that the tractor leaves too much of it's mark, and if you travel across the way it was power harrowed, you feel every bump, although it looks a lovely finish. I do have a leveling board, but find that it ends up giving a too fine tilth. My land will cap after a heavy downpour, so I like having a few clods in the seedbed.
Yes, this, I am not particularly bothered for arable fields, but for reseeding I want something better than a power harrow can give me.
Reseeding gives a tilth quickly and easily, but for level and compacting, it's not the machine in my experience
I ploughed this last year...
Well packed furrows, that you could travel along ok, without leaving much of a mark.
I power harrowed it, to get a tilth to bury some barley seed. It was hellish rough to travel across it, i recon dual wheels, or a lighter tractor would help...?
Reseeding, I draw this though after the power harrow, I think it helps get a level seedbed, a cambridge roller finishes the job.
Different soils, weather, timings, etc etc etc. This is not the right way to do it, but it seems to work for me.
I believe in shallow working, been taught by my father, ploughing deeper than 6ins is a arse kicking offence. I think that the modern no till, min till, no plough, shallow till system has it's fans because many of the ploughs today are not doing a tidy job unless they are ploughing 10 ins deep. The ones that look and laugh at this antique kit are often guilty. 5 furrow reversibles ploughing 20ins wide with 180hp powering on is not really what ploughing is all about, not IMO anyway.
ollie989898
Member
A few folk get really peculiar when it comes to growing maize- it is like they believe it won't grow or something unless things are done a certain way. I've known people swear a power-harrow for maize was the worst tool ever, yet ploughing and then using a sumo on it was ideal???? That's two different ends of the same pencil in my book.
Without a doubt a power-harrow is an incredibly versatile tool and it can operate in dry or wet conditions and stick a degree of trash, too. Is it any wonder then that a lot of farms have one because they just want something they can use every year and not have to park up?
I agree a lot of people run them too deep or too slow, if you bury them deep and try hard enough it will end up looking like a beach and inevitably slump but that is no fault of the machine and I suspect if I tried hard enough with a toptilth or sumo I could get the same end result.
It is no secret that tillage causes some deleterious effects on soils. I don't think livestock farmers should be too worried about that fact if all they are doing is rotating a few fields of maize around as opposed to turning over hundreds and hundreds of acres a year.
I do have to agree with others however that power-harrowing for combinable crops has probably had its day for no reason other than economics now.
- Location
- Moreton-in-Marsh, Glos
Each of us finds a system that works best for our own individual farms. Nobody else can say that it is the wrong approach.
However, we should all be looking for improvements and be flexible enough to want to at least look at alternative techniques.
The fool is the one who reckons he knows it all and insists that his way is the only way.
However, we should all be looking for improvements and be flexible enough to want to at least look at alternative techniques.
The fool is the one who reckons he knows it all and insists that his way is the only way.
- Location
- Darlington
Exactly. Every day's a school day and the day it isn't is the day to think about stopping. Not keen on the cultivation zealots on either side of the spectrum.
- Location
- south norfolk
Still use a combination here as it was needed for late lifted beet to get wheat in.could manage without it now but not too dear to run and allways works
Nick...
Nick...
- Location
- East meath/dublin
Farming in a wet climate the plough and ph combi is the most verstaile and weatherproof method of establishing winter crops. I use a tine harrow in front of the combi for spring crops to level and firm the seedbed , though in very dry conditions i will give the ground two runs in of the tines and then drill with the MF 500 end wheel drill to ensure the fert gets in with the seed . Power harrows are like ploughs the have their place and suit most farms . As regards the theory that horsepower required to plough doubling i would suggest there is more going on than meets the eye . We have been ploughing with 4 furrow reversibles behind 120 and 100 hp tractors for over thirty years and i have not noticed any more power required over the years . One thing i have noticed is combi outfits have become much heavier and this i think is way more damaging than is realised .
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