But it comes with problems.

Terry only disks the corn and old alfalfa fields.  Disking over once only shreds about 40-70% of the stalks, most of the time it takes two passes to get the stalks small enough.

A common problem, but one a farmer really wants to avoid, is the ground is too wet.  Disking wet soil results in non-uniform shredding, creates clods, leaves compacted soil, and wads up in the disks. The only thing to do then is…

Dig the mud out with a bar!  Terry has scrapers on some of the disks, but of course the one in the middle (which never wads up) packed in tight.

Cleaned and ready to go.

Here is what a disked field looks like.  Tomorrow he will plow.  There again he will only plow last year’s corn field and any alfalfa fields he wants to take out of production.

Alfalfa gets old after several years so to keep the vigor of the crop and to keep weeds from taking over a ‘hay’ field has to be disked and plowed up. 

All crops are rotated, so this hay field will become a corn field for the 2010 year.  And the corn fields will become pinto bean fields.  We have a newly seeded alfalfa field coming into production this year and another older field which should last a couple of more years.

Good crop management is about healthy soil, crop rotation, and good irrigation practices.

But you know all that from raising gardens.

Another storm is heading our way…let’s hope it swings around us again!

Linda