obscene amount of corn trash, hard time plowing.

[mikmaze]

as the title says, my efforts are being tried, lots of corn trash, and my plow keeps getting fouled. Plow is as open as can be, yet the trash jams up in between and I have to stop, lift the plow, and let the trash pile fall out, or hop off the tractor and un jam it. Tried re setting the plow, lowered high side, tipped forward, tipped back, seems nothing will work. I have good enough ground speed, but dang I am frustrated. Any tips to flipping under heavy trash?

 

[Bill]

Is the ground wet? I've plugged up many times with wet ground and trash.
I flat out can't disk dead foxtail without burning it first.

 

[yoderjac]

I've stopped using a plow altogether. Mine now sits and rusts. I've gone to a no-till drill but can't afford a big-boy drill. Instead, I use a small Kasco versa-drill and it does not handle trash very well. Dead vegetation gets caught between the openers and the mud scrappers. I don't plant a monoculture of corn, so my level of corn stalk trash is probably small compared to yours. I plant beans with a light mix of corn primarily for vertical cover to encourage daytime use.

So while the degree and equipment are different, the basic problem is the same. Here is what I've done to mitigate the problem. I'm not saying the same will work for you but it is something to consider.

Our firearm season ends in early January. The corn cobs are long gone by then in my case and here in zone 7a, winters are generally not harsh enough for food to be a limiting factor. Also, I broadcast a cover crop into my standing beans/corn so there are other foods available in the field. Once our season is over, I bushhog the corn stalks. This puts them on the ground early giving soil microbes time to work on them. One of the plants in my cover crop is PTT. It needs to be terminated in the spring before it bolts. So, in early spring I use a tiller. I lift it with my 3-pt hitch so that it barely touches the soil. No more than 1" deep. The primary function is to terminate the turnips and to chop up the vegetation allowing more soil contact as it warms in the spring. This does not seem to hurt the crimson clover or winter rye in my cover crop. The slight disturbance is not a problem. So, when it comes time to drill my beans/corn, I have actively growing WR and CC with little trash.

Just some food for thought about trash management. My objective is to keep food on the table and minimize tillage for long-term soil health.

I've done a enough plowing in the old days to know what you mean. Bill is certainly right that soil conditions seem to be the primary issue when a plow clogs, but very heavy trash can also cause it.

Thanks,

Jack

 

[MoBuckChaser]

Brush mow the corn stalks and then plow....

 

[mikmaze]

not a soil moisture problem, I am plugging up with what comes out of the harvester. I have no choice as far as this, farmer does his cor crop, every year. Harvests and lets the whole 26 acre field sit empty till corn again next spring. If I don't plant anything, there is nothing there after two weeks. as for a drill? no way through this level of trash. Corn was 10 feet tall this year. Soil health? Farmer will come by in a month and chisel plow, but leaves my ww alone as he wants the deer to come to it so we can harvest the corn eating devils. he does a 16 inch row, 6 inch spacing to have a heavy wall of corn, by me flipping the trash under and doing ww his corn yield is actually higher in my plot areas.

 

[MRBB]

I use a disc' and run some chains between the disc's and that keeps things from clogging up?
not sure why you need to plow to do winter wheat? seems like a lot of extra work to me?

 

[yoderjac]

I'd simply surface broadcast a cover crop as soon as the harvester comes through. I like WR/CC/PTT. These crops don't require tillage. I'd just surface broadcast the seed and then bushhog the area to shred the corn. A tiller set high will chop up the corn even better.

BTW, 10' tall corn is not a great measure of soil health. High input farming can produce great crops while degrading the soil. I'm not suggesting that is the case here, just saying that is not a great metric of soil health.

Thanks,

Jack

 

[j-bird]

Chop what you can with a mower, and as much as I hate to say it - either rake it or burn it off, then plow. I hate to suggest doing that as you are wasting a lot of material to be returned to the soil. If you can somehow limit what you remove that would be best. The more of those stalks you can plow under the better it is for the soil. I assume you don't have trash cutters on your plow - this isn't mine, but they can help cut the stalks and prevent then from hanging up on your plow.

 

[MoBuckChaser]

Sorry but the coulters will make the plow plug worse. The coulters are for cutting sod, so the sod will roll over.

 

[j-bird]

Sorry but the coulters will make the plow plug worse. The coulters are for cutting sod, so the sod will roll over.

Shows what I know. Mine where pretty sharp and I adjusted mine (raised them up to try to ensure the stalks went under them) to help cut the stalks and it seemed to work to at least some extent.....maybe it didn't make a difference and I just thought is was working better because I had done something.

 

[Jayber]

Borrow a stalk chopper, disc or mow them. Constant plugging is a pain.

I disc'd last year, but am hoping to mow (b4 the snow) this.

 

[MoBuckChaser]

Biggest problem with stalks nowadays is the traited corn. They don't break down very well anymore. They stay green and fiberous, if fiberous is a word? In the old days when conventional corn was all that was planted, that corn would be half rotten by august. Plus the corn genetics are a lot taller it seems like providing more trash to deal with. That is why guys stalk chop or run stalk chopping corn heads now.

 

[MoBuckChaser]

Shows what I know. Mine where pretty sharp and I adjusted mine (raised them up to try to ensure the stalks went under them) to help cut the stalks and it seemed to work to at least some extent.....maybe it didn't make a difference and I just thought is was working better because I had done something.

Don't get me wrong there are plows you can leave the coulters on and plow through corn stalks, and if you have one, great. but most food plotters don't have those. LOL

 

[mikmaze]

my coulters made it worse, when it clogged with them, it was a nightmare to unclog. I may try to disc without plowing tomorrow, see if that can get it done.

 

[Jayber]

Sometimes, with high trash fields, we'd raise the coulters up some where they'd still cut, but not clog so much.

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

 

[mikmaze]

got er done, trashy mess, but after 3 passes with the disc I had a plantable plot. sure there are a few mounds of trash here and there, but it will do as I need it to for the season. I wish I could burn, still have 3 other spots to do in the same field. Deer watching me work tonight, curious and dumb,till ya sit dead still in a tree in full camo.