Planker for secondary tillage?

I’ve made and used one. I didn’t have any kind of a shed to store it in and it rotted away after a couple years so I didn’t make another one. The planker did a good job breaking up clods but now I’ve come up in the world – 😀 – got a disk harrow and a mat harrow that, in combination and used successively a couple of times, does a good job in preparing a seed bed. I made the planker before I had the disk harrow and before I had amended my soil. Now there’s a great deal more organic material in my soil and not so much clay, so the clods aren’t as big a problem as they were before.

In my area, Redwood country, they are still common, but we call it a “scrub” not sure why, but I have used one behind a tractor. In a logging area like this one you can usually find the required 2-4 inch thick by 12 inch wide planks to make one. Another benefit of redwood is that is is not so prone to rot. I know of several farmers that swear by them and continue to use it even when other tools are available. It is usually used as an important component of dry farming, without any irrigation or rain. I say go for it, cheap and easy, if you got the wood.

I bet one inch of oak would give the required weight for the tool to work properly, part of the reason redwood has to be thicker is that it is such a light wood.

I use hardwood pallets with a chain attached to drag my pasture every few weeks to bust up the piles of manure from my equine and my goats and knock down the rough ground around the hay feeder.  I hook the pallet behind my mule with a single tree and stand on the pallet for weight.  I do like the idea of a planker better, looks like I have another project to add to my list!

I seeded over 100 acres with that 10 foot drill the last time I used it, that’s a lot of circles. I should have kept that drill set up. Eli