Let’s talk plowing

[Lane Linnenkohl]

I know there’s not one answer to this question, and there’s many variables, but in general…

You’re starting with a good broke young team of horses. They’re steady and reliable. They haven’t done everything yet, but you know they can handle the new stuff with no problem. They’re not perfect, but no major faults. Your average young broke team.

How many acres/hours/seasons of plowing until this team is a decent, reliable plow team?

Oh, and I’m mainly talking about a walking plow here…

Lane Linnenkohl

[Iron Rose]

Whenever I start a young team or a team that my have never worked for a living I start them on a light bobsled or breaking sled. Lay out a furrow with a tractor or good plow team. Then drive one horse in the furrow a few rounds untill they get used to the load and your furrow horse knows were he is to be.
Its a lot easier to drive the horses then to try to drive horses and run the plow at the same time.

[Rob FLory]

Hi Lane,

I enjoyed the pictures on your web site.
I don’t have an answer for your question, but a couple more questions to think about.

How young is your team? Are your horses developed(old) enough and conditioned enough to pull a plow? The plow is one of the harder loads of the implements we use, and we like them to be able to do it for a full day. Along the way, using a smaller plow for fewer hours is a good idea.

Will they follow the furrow with minimal guidance from the teamster? Do you use a second person to steer the plow? That second person is handy in the beginning, but at some point you’ll want to wean yourself off that.

Do they stop well, if something goes wrong?

I’m sure interested to hear your story of bringing your young horses along, as we only use older horses at our place. We have had few horses under 8 years old in the 20 years I’ve been at this.

Rob Flory

[Lane Linnenkohl]

Thank you for the replys. I thought that this topic would generate more interest than this.

I did most of what was suggested. Although we used the horses to open the first furrow. Then ground drove the team back and forth with the furrow horse in the furrow till she understood where she belonged. We’ve done some plowing this spring, still have some more to do. Right now we have one person driving the team while another is working the plow.

This team is in harness every day, conditioning is not a problem.

On another note, I have heard it said/seen it written, that a properly adjusted plow is critical to good plowing. The only thing I can see to adjust on my plow is where to set the clevis for depth of plowing. What is there to adjust? I have found no information on the internet regarding adjusting a plow. Lynn Miller’s book on horse drawn plows is out of print, expensive to buy, and severl attempts to get it on inter-library load from my library have yielded nothing.

Thanks for any input.

Lane Linnenkohl

[Crabapple Farm]

Plow adjustments:
Different plow makes and models have some variations, of course. The general points of adjustment are the hitch point and the land wheel. Generally you can adjust both the vertical and horizontal hitching points – verticle adjusts for plowing depth, relative to angle of draft (affected by how tall your animals are), and horizontal adjusts furrow width (or if using three allows an off-center hitch point. The land wheel, if you’ve got one, ought to be adjustable as well. This also controls depth of furrow. A “well adjusted” plow ought to have the wheel and hitch setting in agreement, rather than disagreeing with eachother. Thing to check: when plowing, is a)the depth what you want, b) the land wheel rolling along, lightly pressing in, but not digging into the soil, and c) the heel of the landslide in contact with the bottom of the furrow (plow running level, not nose down or up). If all three are yes, then that’s about right. Similarly, are you having to fight the plow to keep it plowing a decent furrow width? If so, try adjusting the horizontal hitch location. A well adjusted good walking plow running in good soil, not hitting stones, behind a team who are where they ought to be, ought to run upright cutting an appropriate furrow without you holding on to it. The handles are to allow you to compensate for uneven terrain, not to hold the plow in the ground with.
I tried a new Pioneer plow several years ago at a HPD, and must say I wasn’t terribly impressed. It seemed like at anything less than eight inches deep, the plow just wanted to pop out of the soil and fall over. You could keep it in, but that’s what you were doing – holding the plow up and in the ground the whole time. I think the problem is that they are (were?) using tractor/sulky bottoms, which don’t have to be as exactly balanced as a walking plow and so aren’t. Alternatively, with three big belgians you can just plow deep and then it would run fine (and from what I’ve seen the Amish are always happy to throw another horse or two on).
The coulter, if you’ve got one, is also obviously adjustable for depth.
Rob may chime in with more; he taught me what I know.

-Tevis

[Lane Linnenkohl]

Thank you for the info. My plow has no wheel, and only a vertical hitchpoint adjustment. No horizontal adjustment. I am planning on plowing my next area with 3 abreast. How much of a problem will this cause with my plow? Even so, I’ll have to use 3 horses to break this ground.

Lane

[Crabapple Farm]

Having tried to pass myself off as knowledgable, you called my bluff. I’ve never worked three abreast, so I’m going out on a limb here. The problem I see is that the three horse evener puts the hitch point behind the middle horse, whereas walking plows are normally designed to be hitched halfway between the furrow horse and the adjacent horse. Is there a way to create a horizontal hitchpoint adjustment on your plow? Alternatively, now that you’ve trained your furrow horse to walk in the furrow, you can teach them the bad habit of walking up on the plowed ground.
Hopefully someone with more experience will give you better advice.
-Tevis

[Carl Russell]

If you use an off-set 3 horse evener the plow will hitch between the off two, and your furrow horse will stay in the furrow, and you’ll have two on the land. Never have done it, but I’ve seen diagrams of the set-up. Carl

[Lane Linnenkohl]

The problem I see is that the three horse evener puts the hitch point behind the middle horse, whereas walking plows are normally designed to be hitched halfway between the furrow horse and the adjacent horse.

Agreed, I’ll have my evener set with right hand horse as far in as possible, and I figured that I’d steer the plow a bit to the side if necessary. I have no idea how that’ll work.

Is there a way to create a horizontal hitchpoint adjustment on your plow?

I don’t know. I’d have to see one and think about it.

If you use an off-set 3 horse evener the plow will hitch between the off two, and your furrow horse will stay in the furrow, and you’ll have two on the land. Never have done it, but I’ve seen diagrams of the set-up. Carl

That’s interesting. I’ll have to keep a lookout for a diagram. I’ve not seen that. Thanks.

Lane

[goodcompanion]

I have an offset 3-abreast evener that I built from plans in lynn miller’s book. Going to try it out next week. I’ll let you know how it works out.

I also have had a hell of a time trying to erase last year’s efforts at plowing with 3 abreast at the fall gmdha meeting. Suffice it to say that things didn’t work as they should have then. The plowed land is a total moonscape.

[Lane Linnenkohl]

I have an offset 3-abreast evener that I built from plans in lynn miller’s book. Going to try it out next week. I’ll let you know how it works out.

I assume you mean Miller’s Workhorse Handbook. I’ll check it out when I get home. I look forward to hearing how your’s works.

My attempts at plowing thus far have been borderline comical at best. But we’ve gotten the job done.

Lane

[Donn Hewes]

I have done it in the past and it worked great. Tried it last year with three mules that had never plowed before and it wasn’t pretty. Three is one more mule than you can talk into a straight line at one time some days. I use a regular center fire three horse evener, (it is narrow but I would have to measure it to see how tight it is). For plow adjustment I welded some angle iron that bolted to the height adj and gave me some holes about six inches to the left of the beam. some plows came with this lateral adjustment and it had a little diagonal brace that went back to the beam. Anyway, I hooked my three horse evener on there and it worked great. It is nice to use three horses for sod busting or horses that really aren’t in condition for plowing. but it is one more horse to keep going straight! Planning to use the two bottom trailer plow this week end.

[Lane Linnenkohl]

Thank you Don. I may try the angle iron adjustment.

Erik, could you post where you found the diagram for the offset 3 abreast evener? I didn’t see it in Workhorse Handbook. Or could you post an image of the thing here?

I also searched the internet for an offset evener, but no luck.

Thanks

Lane

[Lane Linnenkohl]

Carl or Erik,

Just curious if you can tell me where you saw diagrams for the offset evener? Or can you post a diagram?

Erik, whick L. Miller book did you see the diagram in?

Thanks

Lane

[Carl Russell]

Lane, In the Work Horse Handbook on page 120 there is a 3-horse evener for a wagon hitch. As I wrote before, i have never made, nor used one, but I studied it hard a few years ago with the thought to use 3 on a bobsled. Hope that helps. Carl

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