Thanks Deas, I got an eye appointment Tuesday. Good thing, looks like I need it.

Here's a Cat D9E purpose-built plow tractor , build for M v Damme in the early 60s.
There has never been a blade on it !!
Was used for deep plowing.
The seat and control levers and pedals are moved to the right side of the tractor for a better view in the plow ditch ( ore how do you call this in English ? )
Note the lights in the grill !!!!!!!!
The tractor still there in the Netherlands , now in the possession of two brothers.

Im on the same page as Neil or should that be same furrow:thumb:

Paul

Its called a furrow in Minnesota also.The ones left at the edge or in the middle of the field when you complete the field is called a dead furrow around here.

A "dead" furrow with one of those monsters would be "grave". It has always amazed me, the things people think up. You want to plow HOW deep?? Okie Dokie here's you plow. Now you find a way to pull it!

what i cant under stand is what the reason for ploughing that deep because no farming operation I can think of would require such a deep ploughing there must be a reason I just cant think of what ??

Paul

Soil mixing. Looks like sand and a layer of clay or silt.

"old-iron-habit" wrote:

Its called a furrow in Minnesota also.The ones left at the edge or in the middle of the field when you complete the field is called a dead furrow around here.

And the one on the field edge(assuming you are going around it) was called a "back furrow" around here.

"mrsmackpaul" wrote:

what i cant under stand is what the reason for ploughing that deep because no farming operation I can think of would require such a deep ploughing there must be a reason I just cant think of what ??

Paul

In California it was common to deep plow that deep prior to planting deep rooted crops like walnuts, Almonds, and grapes in Stratified soils where two different types of alluvial plains met leaving alternating layers of different soil types. The idea was not to flip the soil over but turn it 90 degrees onto its side. As roots and water move through soil stratification the downward movement tends to stop and cause both the roots and water to move sideways as they hit a different layer of soil.

Then there is Slip Plowing done here which is really deep ripping 5 -8' deep that breaks up soil cementation combined with a flat plate that goes down from the shoe up to the surface to displace the cementation (we call it hardpan here) layer.

Another deep plowing process done prior to planting the above mentioned crops is to mark out where the plants are going to be planted and use an excavator to dig a 10' deep and 10' diameter hole. Wait a few weeks then come back and put the soil back into the hole mixing it up in the process. This is done quite a bit in the areas where there is a layer of glacial silt and the fields are really not big enough (smaller than 320 acres) to economically support a couple of D8's pulling a plow bottom.