@KMA - I would say tomatoes and courgettes do have roughly similar requirements, and any muck you can get, especially if it's been rotted, is worth having. Though thanks @Old McDonald for your link! You are a mine of useful information.
@Treemover - do you cultivate immediately after ploughing? I've been told to leave it at least 10 days to get the grass to die off a bit, but I'd be very happy to learn this isn't necessary as it could speed things up for me.
I have a small allotment as I have no garden (I live in a town, but am also a tenant farmer on some land just outside the town where it's not feasible to live on-site). I've been messing about growing unusual vegetables as well as some staples there for 10 years and more. I've always found it's best to grow stuff I can harvest in a block - e.g. potatoes or pumpkins, rather than having to go there every day. It was experimenting growing lentils on my allotment that ultimately led me to growing them on the farm on a larger scale.
This does make me think that there must be a lot of people out there quietly growing things on allotments and gardens who could possibly provide very useful insights to commercial growers.
Thanks to everyone who has posted on this thread, it's all very interesting.
Your right; it's supposed to reduce pests I think leather jackets and something else.
I just hit that as the sod wasn't clean and I didn't want the grass growing up between the furrows, but I plan on ploughing the rest and leaving it for a week or so.
Next year I'll plough earlier; get dung out earlier! I just need to get organised!!