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Pasco WA. | This pivot was planted to timothy last october after late sweet corn. Disked 2 times and plant. Had I worked it any more it would be smoother but wind erosion would have taken out the timothy.
My primary crop is alfalfa. I also raise timothy and sweet corn for rotation. Also I lease out for potatos. Alfalfa is normally planted after potatos but I wanted to try something different on this pivot. Normal tillage consists of the disk. I can only recall plowing 3 pivots in the last 20 years. All three were taking out a grass crop. My soil is sand with less than 1% organic matter. Less than 6" of annual rainfall so we totally rely upon irrigation. So I think my conditions are a bit different than what you have in the midwest.
You have obviously never tried to harrow a field of sod to smooth it up. A rototiller will work and that is how I worked the end rows instead of plowing them. Just as expensive as plowing and very slow. The disk will never be able to chop up the sod fine enough to make the field smooth. Plenty good enough for corn but not alfalfa.
I can no till timothy into alfalfa with a conventional drill as long as I lightly till the surface just enough for the drill to penetrate. Sweet corn can be notilled into timothy. Notill into alfalfa would work fine if we could just kill the alfalfa. Potatos will never be notilled. Neither will the crop following potatos. | |
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Plowing for NV Dave
