Plough – As Revolutionary Farm Equipment and Its Uses

Ploughing is one of the most significant soil managings practices, been followed from centuries to form a straight, structural, grained and moist seeding layer. Ploughing is an ancient simple yet effective farm a practice that includes granulates, cuts, and overturns the soil, forming furrows and ridges.

Plough is one of the oldest farming implements with a significant revolution that originated from basic and primitive ploughs to modern ploughing machine. Traditionally, ploughing was difficult and labour-intensive agriculture practice. But, contemporary farmers have the chance to select between different types of ploughs and upgraded farm machinery. With the modern farm machinery, a farmer can sit and relax in the tractor, can work on the fields using the new technology.

Type of Ploughs

Various farm implements and tools are available today that make every step of crop production easy, right from the soil management to harvesting. More specifically, about ploughs, there are many types present in the market and a farmer needs to choose the right one.

The type of plough a farmer need will mainly depend on his field and soil type, and specific crop production. Few types of plough we have discussed here –

Disc Plough

Disc plough generally has three or more individually mounted discs inclined backwards to achieve maximum depth. They are mainly used in hard, dry soils, shrubby or bushy land, or on rocky lands.

Mould- Board Plough

A Mould Board Plough is one of the most important and popular tillage equipment for primary tilling of the soil. This equipment is mostly used in canal irrigated or dense rain areas on earth where weeds grow with ease.

The purpose of using a Mould-Board plough is to invert and pulverize the soil absolutely, dig up the weeds, scrap and old crop residues, burying them under the soil. The design and shape of a mould-Board Plough allows it to cut down the soil with ease and upturn it to the right side. It buries the weeds completely that subsequently are turned into the soil after decomposition. A Reversible mould-board plough is an improved model of the same mould-board plough.

Rotavator Or Rotary Plough Or Rotary Tiller

A Rotary Plough, Rotary Tiller or Rotavator is used to break, mix and aerate the soil and increasing its oxygen count and makes it good for seeding and harvesting. Rotavator works with a set of blades or rotors connected to the engine that breaks through the soil when revolving. This a piece of agriculture machinery used as tractor implement in modern farming practices.

So, choose the proper plough for your farm after analyzing your need. After all, well prepared and managed soil is the basis for fruitful crop production.

7 Best Tillage Equipment to Have for a Mechanized Farm

Tillage is the initial process in agricultural practices and half of the job of growing crops is done by tilling or managing the soil. Once a farm has perfect soil conditions, it is easier for a farmer to accomplish further farming operations.

Tilling or managing soil requires many tough jobs from digging up the weeds to providing a perfect structure to the soil for planting. Farm mechanization allows a farmer to accomplish all the harsh jobs at a farm in minimum time and maximum efficiency. A fully mechanized farm should be well equipped with the necessary farm equipment required for tillage. Here we have mentioned the most used tillage equipment in agricultural practices.

Ploughs

Ploughs are the most basic tillage equipment used to break, turn and mix the soil and works efficiently even in rocky and rooted areas. Various models used worldwide as per their functions are – mould-board plough, reversible mould-board plough, disc plough etc.

Rotary Tillers

Popularly known as Rotavator, a rotary tiller is used in both primary and secondary tillage operations. Managing soil with rotavator ensures that the land is perfectly levelled with no clods to make it perfect for planting seeds.

Harrows

Harrow is used as primary tillage equipment in an open field for superficial ploughing, smashing the clods, aerate the soil and burying the organic remains and substances under the surface. Few Harrow models are high speed disc harrow, power harrow, poly disc harrow etc.

Sub Soilers

Sub soiler are used in the areas where deep tillage is required especially to break up hardpan layers in the soil and loosening the subsoil for improved drainage, ideal root growth and mineral osmosis.

Cultivator

A cultivator is used to loosen and aerate the soil to a depth of nine inches. The cultivator is used as secondary tillage machinery that easily till the soil on each side of the rows in the fields, removing unwanted weeds and grass.

Power Harrow

Power Harrow turns breaks even the most compact soil and refines and evenly distribute the soil over the entire working field to create a perfect seedbed in a single go.

Ripper

A Ripper is used to cut the weed roots under the surface, leaving the organic matter on the upper layer of the soil. It is suitable to use even in dry and harsh lands as the equipment have a robust structure to keep it safe from damages by underground stones & roots.

With the increasing mechanization in agriculture, farmers are using new and innovative agricultural machinery to get increased benefits. To know more about the modern farm equipment read below articles.

Modern Tillage Equipment & Machinery– An Overview andUses

Ploughing Efficiently with Different Ploughing Patterns

Tilling the soil before planting or land preparation is a quite expensive and critical operation for the success of the farming season. There are numerous patterns that are used for tilling the soil. Use of Tillage equipment depends on these different types of ploughing patterns.

The most important purpose of using various types of plough or tillage equipment is to reduce the number of turns and get the best out of the length of tillage rounds.

Ploughing patterns are decided on various factors such as

·        The use of the implement

·        Field levels for – headland, plains

·        Field shapes – long, narrow

·        Types of Soil

Different types of ploughing patterns are mentioned below

1.      Circuitous pattern –

·        This ploughing pattern is most commonly used in Asia.

·        In this type, farmers start ploughing from the outside edge of the field, towards the centre leaving a furrow in the middle.

·        The soil is thrown on the outside of the field. This is commonly done with disc plough, Mouldboard plough, offset disc plough.

2.      Headland Pattern –

(i)                 One way –

·        The ploughing is done in tracks parallel to each other, starting at one side of the boundary, ending at the opposite side of the field and turns made on the headlands.

·        This pattern is generally used in large fields and done by some specific tillage implements such as rotavators or rotary tillers, harrows and reversible MB plough.

·        This is one of the most efficient systems to plough the fields.

·        The tillage equipment should be correctly operated r set up so that it does not leave a furrow in the fields.

(ii)               Gathering –

·        In this type of pattern ploughing is started from the middle of the field and leaves a field level.

·        In this pattern, it is essential to have the right measurement of the field for deciding the centre point.

·        If done properly, it makes the soil smooth and ideal for planting, creating drainage passages on the edges.

·        Furrow parts are turned towards the middle of the field.

·        This pattern of ploughing can be done with any types of ploughs.

(iii)              Casting Pattern –

·        This pattern is quite the same as the gathering pattern but the ploughing is started at the edges.

·        Furrow parts are generally turned towards the edges of the land.

·        This types of the pattern can be used with all types of ploughs.

3.      Continuous Ploughing

·        This is considered the most economical and convenient ploughing pattern for normal soil conditions.

·        In this pattern, the headland is marked initially and the first point is established in the third quarter of the field width from the edge.

·        The other edges are at the complete width over the field.  Farmers start ploughing between the first edge and along with the side land.

·        Farmer continues to turn tractor left in the three quarters until the ploughing of a quarter of land width is completed on each side.

4.      Round and round ploughing

·        In this pattern the plough is used round and round of the field

·        This pattern is generally used in soil conditions where the ridges and furrows obstruct the tilling work.

·        There are two starting points in this.

(i)                 Centre Starting

·        A tiny part in the middle of the field is marked and ploughed first

·        And later, the ploughing is done round this tiny spot of the field until it is completed till the end.

·        This pattern is not very economical.

(ii)               Outer end Start

·        It is started with Tractor ploughing from the end moving on all the sides of a field and then gradually coming from the edges to the mid of the field.

·        This is one of the conventional ploughing methods.

(iii)              One way ploughing

·        This pattern is done with a specific type of plough known as a reversible plough.

·        A reversible plough turns furrows to the right or left.

·        The farmer plough along a straight side of the field

·        At the end of the first round, the farmer turns tractor in a loop and returns through the same furrow.

·        This pattern is most suitable for gently sloping fields.

Plough - Overview, History, Types and Manufacturer in India

Plough Overview

A plough is farm equipment that is used in farming operations for the primary cultivation in the process of preparing the soil for seeding or planting by turning it up and exposing to the sun.

The key objective of Ploughing the land is to turn up the upper layer of the soil to bring fresh nutrients to the surface and bury the remains of previous crops under the surface to break them down. In modern agriculture practices, the field is usually left to dry out after using a plough on soil an later on harrowed before seeding.

History of Ploughing

Agriculture is one of the oldest industries in the world and humans started to learn to plough fields before they could even write. Initially, humans were dependent on wild vegetation and used to roam around in search of wild fruits and vegetables. 

But with the time they started to learn growing plants and the first step towards it was tilling the fields with a basic plough that was made with wooden and iron blades, later on, these were dragged by animals. With the revolution and development in technology, farmers started using a tractor and the plough was developed as a tractor implement that made the tilling work easy for farmers.

Types of Plough

With the development and increasing, use of farm machinery in agriculture plough has also been modified as per the soil and field types. Various types of plough have been invented on the basis of their functions and operations. The different types of plough used in agriculture are -

·        Disc Plough

·        Chisel Plough

·        Mould Board Plough

·        Reversible Mould Board Plough

·        Mounted Mould Board Plough

·        Reversible Manual Plough

Top Manufacturers in India

As we all are aware that agriculture is one of the widest industries contributing to the worldwide economy. Farmers are using the latest farm machinery to increase their efficiency and productivity. Many agricultural machinery manufacturers in India, offer various types of farm implements. 

Fieldking is one of the leading farms implement manufacturers that offer a wide range of different types of plough with different functions specifications and are compatible to use with different types of soil conditions.

WHICH TRACTOR IS IDEAL FOR YOU?

Reversible Mould Board Plough

The Mould Board Plough offered by Fieldking is designed in such a way that it is compatible to function with all types of soil such as breaking, raising and inversion of the soil. It comes with special wear-resistant steel bottoms with points to accomplish the toughest ploughing jobs with excellent and easy penetration.

To know more about Reversible MB Plough please visit - https://agriworldusa.blogspot.com/2020/03/reversible-mould-board-plough.html