Mole ploughing/subsoiling in this weather?

Muckit

I'm wondering is it a good idea? Will it dry out the ground too much?? I've seen a good few lads around here at it the last week or so

reilig

Muckit wrote: »

I'm wondering is it a good idea? Will it dry out the ground too much?? I've seen a good few lads around here at it the last week or so

Now is the time to do it. The channel formed by the ball stands more of a chance of forming properly in real dry weather than in wet weather.

lakill Farm

reilig wrote: »

Now is the time to do it. The channel formed by the ball stands more of a chance of forming properly in real dry weather than in wet weather.

You know anyone with one for sale Reilig? :cool:

reilig

lakill Farm wrote: »

You know anyone with one for sale Reilig? :cool:

Hopefully not after today - have found a dealer willing to take a trade in against a mole plough!

blue5000

Perfect weather for it,if there is a pan there mole ploufghing should help shatter it. Sub soiler might be better though for a pan.

bogman_bass

I'm waiting untill the tail end of the dry spell so its as dry as possible and I get plenty of cracking going on

Muckit

OK, enough said We'I get crackin' in the next few days as soon as the turf is in the shed

AntrimGlens

Was at a DARD drainage and soil fertility event last week and it had lashed down the day before. They had ripped a bit of ground with a sub soiler, mole plough and aerator and you could see the smearing where the legs had all gone through the land therefore just trapping the water. They said in no way should you be trying to use any of those machines until the ground had really dried out and the only way to establish that is to get out the spade and see what ground conditions are like and soil structure is like as you won't know what the best method of draining is until you establish whats wrong with your soil first.
I was impressed with the mole plough but it just wounldn't work on our boulder clay, but i thought the gravel tunnels left too much of a heave for doing on silage ground or ground that would be carrying a lot of stock. They reckoned for a proper full drainage scheme would be £3000p/acre and goign by the bits we have done at home i believe would be about right. I've eight acres of a field being wasted at the minute that needs done:eek:

just do it

blue5000 wrote: »

Perfect weather for it,if there is a pan there mole ploufghing should help shatter it. Sub soiler might be better though for a pan.

There is also the theory subsoilers create a pan!

just do it

Antrim Glens

Why wouldn't it work in boulder clay? I'm not sure what boulder clay is but I'd guess it has large stones/boulders in it? It's just mole ploughing in clay is ideal as the channel will stay open longer.

A friend of mine is talking of borrowing a mole plough and doing some. I'm hoping he'll do a bit for me while he's at it. I'll experiment with a few different soil structures and see how we get on.

reilig

just do it wrote: »

Antrim Glens

Why wouldn't it work in boulder clay? I'm not sure what boulder clay is but I'd guess it has large stones/boulders in it? It's just mole ploughing in clay is ideal as the channel will stay open longer.

A friend of mine is talking of borrowing a mole plough and doing some. I'm hoping he'll do a bit for me while he's at it. I'll experiment with a few different soil structures and see how we get on.

Difficult to mole plough where there is stones or boulders - it will bring them to the surface and you'll have to lift the mole plough and break the drainage channel that you are creating.

just do it

Muckit wrote: »

I'm wondering is it a good idea? Will it dry out the ground too much?? I've seen a good few lads around here at it the last week or so

I'm no expert having not done it before, but I'd be inclined to wait until the dry spell is coming to an end. According to MTC we've another ~2 weeks of dry weather ahead of us. The reason I'd wait is to ensure the greatest depth of ground has dried out as much as it possibly can. My trenches still have water flowing in them as of this morning.

jobseek

Tell me, does one need a drain either end of the field to start and finish in, or could one gradually lower the mole plough into the ground, or maybe this would lead to wet patches at the start and end

iverjohnston

Ideally you would pull them out of an open drain, or failing that, start below a good stoned shore and pull through it and on up hill. If your wheels are compacting the ground, you are doing more harm than good.wait till it is dryer. Boulder clay has the texture of plastiscene.
A mole formed just in the top of it will hold its shape for years. Try and have each mole 4 to 5 foot from the next one. A trailed one much better than a 3 point hitch one, the longer the drawbar the better.

tabby aspreme

For the past three weeks I've been admiring a local field that was subsoiled, it looked a very neat job and the grass was jumping out of the ground the land would be dry but was poached badly last summer its on a well run dairy farm, I drive by it once a week and yesterday things didn't look good the grass which is about 6 inches high is wilting from the heat and looks to be under serious pressure , the fields either side of it are fine .

just do it

So on the Business of Farming page you've the two opposite views on subsoiling. Kieran Mailey in the beef notes is advocating it to relieve compaction and Andy Doyle in the tillage notes talks of nature's cure being better than a subsoiler i.e. soil cracking due to current weather. Worth a read as his argument makes sense. In general I find his articles interesting, particularly when he's talking about soils. He takes a more holistic view.

iverjohnston

just do it wrote: »

So on the Business of Farming page you've the two opposite views on subsoiling. Kieran Mailey in the beef notes is advocating it to relieve compaction and Andy Doyle in the tillage notes talks of nature's cure being better than a subsoiler i.e. soil cracking due to current weather. Worth a read as his argument makes sense. In general I find his articles interesting, particularly when he's talking about soils. He takes a more holistic view.

Natures cure may be better than human organised subsoiling, but unfortunately nature only decides to do it every decade or so!
humans can do it whenever its needed.