Recovering land after deep ploughing

[Richard Budd]

Part of an estate we have taken on has been deep ploughed over the winter (circa 350mm) ready for vines, this is now looking as if it is going to fall out of bed and we are going to farm it along with the rest of the estate. Problem is the top soil is currently buried, my thought is to consolidate what has been done and then turn it back over, if were to do this what sort of size plough body would we need?? It has been done with a specialist deep vineyard plough in the first place. I attach a picture of the current destruction....

 

[davidroberts30]

i think your right
roll and bring it back up

 

[ridger]

Part of an estate we have taken on has been deep ploughed over the winter (circa 350mm) ready for vines, this is now looking as if it is going to fall out of bed and we are going to farm it along with the rest of the estate. Problem is the top soil is currently buried, my thought is to consolidate what has been done and then turn it back over, if were to do this what sort of size plough body would we need?? It has been done with a specialist deep vineyard plough in the first place. I attach a picture of the current destruction....View attachment 1019571

Looks like my uncles standard ploughing

 

[Adeptandy]

Why not get them back to plough it with the Vine plough again

 

[Lincsman]

Not sure ploughing that deep inverts it completely, i would power harrow and drill.. on some of my clay there is some nice silt below 24", getting it to the top would mean redraining.

 

[clbarclay]

What is the logic behind burrying all the top soil for vines in the first place?

 

[teslacoils]

What do you want to plant instead of vines?

 

[yellow belly]

If they have brought a lot of rock up reburying it may be difficult

when at college the soil science depment took use to see a field that some clever bod had deep ploughed without digging enough holes to see what was under the topsoil

the only crop the land was suitable for was grass

modern notill techniques may be able to crop rocky ground

keeping the topsoil on the top is essential for good soil management

deep ploughing on clay land bringing up clay to mix with top soil has ruined many heavy land farms and can ruin drainage
subsoiling without mixing is far more effective if there are no shallow drains

 

[Richard Budd]

Why not get them back to plough it with the Vine plough again

Unlikely to be possible unfortunately - also take a very long time as some single furrow contraption

 

[Richard Budd]

What is the logic behind burrying all the top soil for vines in the first place?

Not totally sure, sure as hell don’t make a lot of sense

 

[Richard Budd]

What do you want to plant instead of vines?

Put it back to arable as it was before

 

[bobk]

Not sure ploughing that deep inverts it completely, i would power harrow and drill.. on some of my clay there is some nice silt below 24", getting it to the top would mean redraining.

Clearly it was a kv plough

 

[z.man]

Level it sow some grass/wild flower seed ......leave well alone and see what it looks like in 10 years time......the risk/reward for trying to crop that with fert at current levels must be dubious

 

[Kidds]

Level it sow some grass/wild flower seed ......leave well alone and see what it looks like in 10 years time......the risk/reward for trying to crop that with fert at current levels must be dubious

I'd say there were 3 options,
as @z.man suggests
plant with vines
plaster with muck and grow mustard or rye to plough back some organic matter.

Pretty flowers would be my choice.

 

[goodevans]

Potato ground gets ploughed at nearly that depth doesn't it

 

[Tractor Tim]

As much muck as you can get hold of and as much variety and then a good summer cover Crop. See what the soil is like and maybe into beans

 

[Flat 10]

Potato ground gets ploughed at nearly that depth doesn't it

And then pulverised and declodded in some instances.

 

[ridger]

And then pulverised and declodded in some instances.

Some maize ground is ploughed that depth to Bury plastic

 

[Adeptandy]

We used to plough 14” regardless of crop on the fenland silts with an old Ransome TS82 MF 188 2wd so should be possible with 300hp and twin beacons

 

[clbarclay]

Potato ground gets ploughed at nearly that depth doesn't it

Not many spuds growers try them on ground that has subsoil like that within a depth they could plough.