I remembered the advice I got about fall plowing from an elderly farm neighbour in 1970. That year I quit my construction job and started farming full time with my father in a partnership. We had purchased a much larger dairy operation and moved in after Thanksgiving Day to our present day farm near Renfrew. I had about 50 acres of land to plow that fall.
The neighbour advised me that after November 5 you can’t depend on plowing. The ground could freeze hard and not thaw again until spring. It was good advice. I worked long days that October, plowing with a three-furrow plow. Winter set in early and a record amount of snow fell and it didn’t melt until March.
Now with all the hullabaloo about climate change and the earth and oceans getting warmer, that November date has been extended I would think to the end of the two week deer hunt. I’m usually plowing during the entire hunting season.
Some years, the fall weather is mild and plowing can be done to the end of November, and occasionally farmers can plow into December. Most years, the ground freezes around the middle of November, and then sometimes there’s a mild spell that thaws the ground. We had that this past Monday when I resumed plowing after a few cold days when the ground was frozen. I do custom plowing in my neighbourhood and was pleased with this week of warmer weather.
October and November are the months that farmers plow some of their fields — such as hayfields and cornfields. The cereal and soybean fields are usually left untouched until spring when they are seeded with a no-till drill. Some farmers, who believed strongly in no-till, are now doing a light tillage in the fall with a cultivator. It covers the trash and the soil will dry quicker in the spring.
Before tractors came on the scene, farmers had to walk behind a team of horses holding the reins and the handles of a one-furrow walking plow. Farmers in those days were proud when they could plow an acre a day. And it wasn’t great plowing sitting on a tractor without a cab on cold November days when the ground wasn’t frozen but the air and the wind were bitterly cold.
When you’re plowing or doing fall tillage, you have a feeling that this caps the year’s fieldwork. It’s a time to reflect back on the growing season.
It’s also a wonderful sight when you see the ground turned over in neat, straight furrows with no variation or grass showing in the furrows. The smooth, even furrows make the whole field look as if it has been turned over with one pass of a gigantic plow.
When plowing is all finished for the season, and before putting the plow away in the machine shed, clean off the dirt and brush grease onto the shiny mouldboards. Or, do as I do, and get a few containers of spray paint and spray it on. I have 10 mouldboards to do on my roll-over plow. It saves a lot of work next fall when I plow — scrapping off stuck on clay.
