Rough Day plowing.

Been trying to finish up this years spring plowing. This field on neighbors land has shallow soil covering limestone bed rock from one end to the other. I have the hydraulic pressure on the reset system set as low as I can and keep the bottoms in their operating position, but still tore things up today, with the tractor just above an idle over the bad spots. The bottom of the furrow is like a slippery sidewalk. Had trouble getting traction with furrow wheel. Sure wish my old 931 had a diff lock. Yesterday I was riding the LH brake plowing sod ground,--today I'm riding the RH one as the bed rock in the bottom of the furrow is wet and slimy.
I hooked into a real bad spot and broke the front bottom totally off. I had to head back to the shop and weld up the plow frog that I broke into 2 pieces. I got it all welded back together and finished the field with no further breakdowns.
The cousin is going to have a real field day picking stone with the 1845 Case skid-steer, and rock bucket.
I kinda had to laugh; the neighbo came down with another load of manure, and saw some of the rocks that I pulled up. He said they never saw rock that big in the field. I said' "I guess you never plowed over 6" deep". Their biggest plow was 4-14" trip bottom.
Loren









Got the broken frog all straightened and welded back together. Found an old slat from the feed house on the combine to make a new cross brace from. The old round brace got ripped off.

Sure can see how you busted up the frog!

Why would you not just no till it?

With the soil that thin why not just use an offset disk? Or better yet think I'd just put it into permanent pasture or hay land.

yeoch,, i hate when that happens. our home stead farm had an 80 that they called the stone cemetary. flagstone and limestone boulders and some of those big granite rounders too. my farms now , if you need a rock, you pretty much need to go in to town and buy one.

I like the color of those Case tractors, too bad about the rock.

(reply to post at 17:55:30 05/09/19)

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Here in NH we had a pretty much complete thaw in mid March, then a complete refreeze. We have had damage to our roads and other structures like never before. If you had the same condition over there you may have gotten more than usual frost action causing more than the usual amount of rock growth.

That is a tough day for sure,,nice job...

That is Rocky ground to plow!! That sucks about the damage to your plow at least you were able to weld it back together and get back to plowing. I live in the WNY area we have some bigger rocks around here but not as many as that. I really enjoy looking at all the pics you post especially the ones of plowing, there is still quite a few guys that still moldboard plow around here.

(quoted from post at 19:01:32 05/09/19) Why would you not just no till it?

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No till doesn't work well every place. Lot of folks went to no till here. Don't see hardly any no till anymore. We get soil compaction problems that really cut into yields about the 2 year in. Depending on the ground here they may just disk, maybe chisel or mow board. But I can't honestly think of one piece of ground I've seen around here (25 miles any direction) that is no tilled.

Rick

Know the feeling, a few years ago in a corn field with a large area of ledge just below the surface tripped my plows several times. Another tractor 730D with 3 bottom plows the trips were not working hit the same area it stopped him instantly and bent the plow frame. We do not plow in those fields anymore.

Where we are is all granite boulders. The west side of Black River is all limestone/shale base and not very deep. Use to hate plowing that stuff when I did custom work. Hooked onto and brought up a piece of shale once that was about 6 feet by 6 feet. Had a booger of a time getting the plow off that. Had to break it up with a sledge hammer.

Was plowing side of a woods and the front bottom hooked a big old white pine root. It didn't trip the bottom. it just slid up the shin piece and snagged. The tractor just settled down, grunted and snapped that main beam like a twig before I could push the clutch in. GRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!
That stinking root went 60-70 feet out into the field before that darn thing went deep enough to not snag the plow. I cut it off at the snag point with a chain saw, hooked a chain onto it and yanked it up as far as I could pull it, dug down a foot with a shovel and sawed it off.

Replaced a lot of broken plow shears , knocked coulters off , lodged big rocks in the plow before and helped plow a buddy field one year that we bought up slabs of sand stone that stood up everywhere and made the field look like a cemetery when we were done , had guys bring me bottoms with bent frogs to be pressed back into shape , But never seen one broke like that. . The spring normal repairs were straightening or welding disc arbors back into shape.

Well, one reason is that I am plowing down unharvested beans. We had wet fall and could not get them to dry down and then they molded in the pods, and the snow flattened them.
This field is also going to be seeded back into hay ground with a Brillion seeder, for the neighbor.
Loren

I have had a heck of a time this year with keeping bolts tight on the bottoms. We bought a lot of new ware parts for this plow this spring (Weise Brand) that came with all the bolts.The heads have been pulling off the plow bolts for the landsides or the threads strip out of the nuts. I suspect that is why the frog broke. I also had 4 landsides break off thru the back bolt hole ahead of the ware pad. Weise used to be quality parts, but I am beginning to wonder this year. I haven't had any plow shear problems. Just normal ware. I do have some moldboard tips that are a bit shorter and have razor sharp edges.
Loren