Whatever happened to the disc plow?

mkirsch · Jan 27, 2009

IH used to produce many models of disc plow. These were like a moldboard plow except instead of moldboards, they had discs to cut the furrows.

Now, I can never keep it straight if the disc plow was supposed to be better in clay or stoney soils, or if it was the other way around... Regardless I have often wondered why they fell out of favor. I've only ever seen one work on Youtube, so I really don't know what its shortcomings were. They had to be pretty significant shortcomings.

LMack · Jan 27, 2009

I have one for a 200 series (two point hitch). My dad had one for his A. My Uncle had one that mounted on a C or SC. All were two disk units. The first short comming was that they did not cut as wide as two 14 bottoms. When my father bought the land in 1948 most of it was in forest. He cleared the land and as you can imagine there were many roots and stumps. The disk tended to cut through the roots better than the plow. After about two years he traded the A for a C with two 14 mounted plows. We never looked back. My Uncle gave up the twin disk plow for two 14's in the late 1950's. Understand that our land was sandy. In the north part of the state where clay is dominant, all plows are disk. Most farmers used a chisel plow followed by a disk harrow or just the harrow alone. The disk plow I have came from a farmer in the piedmont where soils are high in clay content.

NDS · Jan 27, 2009

Do not know exactly why disk plows fell out of favor but up until late fiftys they were about only tractor plows I ever saw in South. Beginning in early sixtys when 2 point and 3 point tractors took over most everyone switched to moldboards. Back in horse and mule days most all plows in my area were moldboards with very few disks.

CNKS · Jan 27, 2009

They work better in a dry climate. The disks don't scour in wet soil, moldboard works better in moist soil. At least that's my understanding. I grew up in south Texas, never saw a moldboard until I came to Kansas. In western KS no one plows any more, in central and eastern KS they still do; either out of tradition, or for the purpose of burying grass weed seed that require repeated applications of herbicide, such as cheat and volunteer wheat.

LenND · Jan 27, 2009

Hey! Did you ever see a disc plow take off and pass the tractor(Well not quite). But when they hit a hard spot of clay they would take off sideways. If ground was two hard they would do it too. But then if it was too dry and hard a moldboard plow don't work worth a hoot either.

Jimmy King · Jan 27, 2009

I grew up on an H and Super A we pulled a HM150 3 disc plow with Hand a A151 2 disc plow with the Super A later had a 230 with a Fast hitch 2 disc plow and a Utility 330 with a fast hitch 3 disc plow we are in very rocky ground flint rock and limestone. we later pulled the HM 150 with a M. I have had the H turn around sideways when I hit a big rock just right. The disc plow gave way to bottom plows here when the trip bottoms and auto resets came out. Also to Offset plows. This is in Southwest MO.

Anonymous-0 · Jan 27, 2009

Occasionally we would use a disk to establish the seed bed for small grains. The tandem disks we owned were not very heavy and I often thought that a disc plow would be the "ticket" for this application. But never did see any in Ohio, either at a dealer or on a farm. Must be the scouring problem. I've often thought about purchasing a western one and having it brought back to Illinois.

CNKS · Jan 28, 2009

You don't want that kind of disk plow. It works exactly the same way as a moldboard. It is a primary tillage implement-- produces big clods under poor conditions just like a moldboard. You might be thinking of the one way, which can be used for secondary tillage. It is wider with more disks, and runs at an angle. It lays weeds down but does not bury them. It was around, I think, before the offset disk, it can be thought of as a single offset, I guess, although that is stretching it some.

jbp · Jan 28, 2009

Dad had one when I was a kid. It worked pretty well in corn stalks or bushes. In sod it tended to make piles that made a tractor ride like a bucking bronc.

CNKS · Jan 28, 2009

I too have used the 150 behind an H. They will not handle wet soil, in particular clay, as you mentioned. The tractor does go sideways. Ideal in soil that is not to wet, not too dry. In general our plowing season was like that.

Whatever happened to the disc plow?

mkirsch

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LMack

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NDS

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CNKS

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LenND

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Jimmy King

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Anonymous-0

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CNKS

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jbp

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CNKS

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