Is it cheaper to run a bigger plough?

Selectamatic

Member
Location
North Wales
Im turning a 3 furrow into a 4 furrow, and as I don't really get out much, I started thinking of this...

If I had a 10 acre field, and a single furrow plough, that plough body plough's ten acres

Next year, I add a furrow, so each body plough's five acres

The year after, I go mad and buy a 10 furrow plough, so, each body plough's 1 acre

Does this actually apply in practice, does anyone find that running bigger plough's cheaper on wearing parts?
 

reboot

Member
Location
Kent
The wider you go the less compaction you get as long as you have appropriate size tyres or better still on land ploughing.
 

Nearly

Member
Location
North of York
I've changed ploughs every couple of years buying at local auctions and selling on ebay.
I've gone from 4x12" to 5x16" on ucn mouldboards, and can go to 18".
Wearing parts should last longer on the plough with more furrows.
Wearing parts are going to be less with wider furrows too.
It does take longer to oil the plough for the winter though. ;)
 
Location
southwest
Im turning a 3 furrow into a 4 furrow, and as I don't really get out much, I started thinking of this...

If I had a 10 acre field, and a single furrow plough, that plough body plough's ten acres

Next year, I add a furrow, so each body plough's five acres

The year after, I go mad and buy a 10 furrow plough, so, each body plough's 1 acre

Does this actually apply in practice, does anyone find that running bigger plough's cheaper on wearing parts?

Depends when the horse, used to pulling a single furrow, drops dead.

More to the point, if one horse can pull a single furrow plough 8 inches deep, turning over and 8 inch furrow, and an MF 65 (57hp) could pull a 5 furrow 12 inch plough why do you need 150hp to pull a five furrow, 16 inch plough?

Answers please to Wherediditallgowrong.co.uk
 

tr250

Member
Location
Northants
Depends when the horse, used to pulling a single furrow, drops dead.

More to the point, if one horse can pull a single furrow plough 8 inches deep, turning over and 8 inch furrow, and an MF 65 (57hp) could pull a 5 furrow 12 inch plough why do you need 150hp to pull a five furrow, 16 inch plough?

Answers please to Wherediditallgowrong.co.uk
Speed is one and I'm convinced land is getting harder under heavy tillage
 

MF 168

Member
Location
Laois, Ireland
The cost per acre will be the same in terms of metal cost. Fair enough a 10 furrow plough will plough 10 times more then a single furrow before needing new metal but the metal used will ultimately be the same. Fuel use and time are the differences. I started out many moons ago with a 3 furrow standard Kv Bomford and it was a good days work to get 10 acres done a very good day. I still have it and now and then when things are quiet I put it on the trusty old 168 and remind myself of the skill it took to plough, opening sets and ploughing them in correctly so a river sized furrow isn't left in the middle of a field. Reversible ploughs have done away with the need for any level of skill with todays operators.
 

Hard Graft

Member
BASE UK Member
Location
British Isles
Depends when the horse, used to pulling a single furrow, drops dead.

More to the point, if one horse can pull a single furrow plough 8 inches deep, turning over and 8 inch furrow, and an MF 65 (57hp) could pull a 5 furrow 12 inch plough why do you need 150hp to pull a five furrow, 16 inch plough?

Answers please to Wherediditallgowrong.co.uk

Well a good heavy horse will average about 10hp over the day
 

Rowland

Member
I’ve plough for 40 years or so might not be the best at it but never the less I been at it a while.
I started with a Ih 574 and a ransom 3 furrow conventional plough starts finishers sets no land wheel etc . It was horrible skimmers used to block up no tramlines to follow for equal distance between set for starts and finishes. At 12 years old this wasn’t easy never really got taught how to do it but bollickiced if it wasn’t right. Moved up to a 4 furrow with tad bigger tractor a still ransom plough. Changing metal wasn’t much fun as you had to sit under the plough to do it .
Moved on to a 3 furrow rev KV using it was like watching paint dry back to about 15 acer a day.
Got a 956 and 4 furrow rev KV which made life a bit better 20-25 acer a day depending on field size.
It’s true as far as I can see no matter how many furrows a plough has the metal will wear the same a set of points and shares will last the same if it’s 1 fur or 8 furs you just change them less frequently the more furrow ms you carry at the time.
I’m presently on 5 furrow KV doing around 30-40 acers a day depending on field size.
Bigger ploughs have less turns which means less time lost.
Bigger heavy ploughs means no more riding out in dry conditions never a problem with winter ploughing for spring crops but with mainly autumn drilling these days you’ll never get a conventional plough to go in these days.
Cheepest setup for ploughing I’d guess at would be 4 fur rev with around 100 hp tractor on it .
You will find quite a different in going from a 3 to 4 furrow and then more with each additional furrow out put is more than just the extra furrow it’s having to do less turns at the headlands
 

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As reported in Independent


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

read the TFF thread here: https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/gfc-was-to-go-ahead-now-not-going-ahead.405234/
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