[AT] Disk Plow or One-Way Plow

[Henry Miller]

The cover crop dealers keep advertising how great some crops are at breaking up soil compaction. Might be worth a shot this winter. If it doesn't work you don't lose much, if it helps at all you save fuel. Probably you can get subsidies from someone to try it as well. 

On September 5, 2014 1:53:09 PM CDT, Greg Hass <ghass at m3isp.com> wrote:
>I think a subsoiler is the way to go. Last year we had a power line go 
>through (we were given no choice) ; they promised to restore the land
>as 
>close as possible to original conditions (surprise, all lies). Some of 
>their equipment was upwards of 80 tons. Although they promised to try 
>and avoid damage as much as possible, every time it rained they came
>in. 
>When they pulled the cement trucks in they left ruts over a foot deep.
>I 
>thought they would come in with a bulldozer with ripper teeth to break 
>up the hardpan but when I asked they said they had no intention of
>doing 
>that. Several years ago I bought a one tooth subsoiler from a company 
>called Monroe-Tufline. At the time I only had a 50 hp tractor. I can go
>
>16 inches deep so last fall I tried breaking up under the power line. I
>
>could only pull it 8 inches deep and then would have to turn around and
>
>re-rip the same pass. It was slow going but I got the one half done. 
>With the one prong my passes are about 28 inches apart. The second half
>
>was wet so I put it on my 140 hp tractor. I know that was overkill but
>I 
>thought going slow would be ok; well it wasn't as I broke the subsoiler
>
>in half.  I thought I had hit a large rock so I had a backhoe come in
>to 
>dig it out. Well, there was no rock, the heavy equipment had packed the
>
>ground that hard. I haven't fixed the subsoiler yet but I do have the 
>things I need to do it. My point is, big equipment can really pack the 
>soil, and as has been pointed out, I don't think disk type equipment 
>will break up the soil.
>
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