No-till organic

[farmaholic]

Pourfarmer; when we still summerfallowed( long time ago now), we used a chisel plow the first couple of times then a "dead rod" that bolted onto the last row of shanks of the cultivator/chisel plow. The cultivator basically got everything loosened and worked and the deadrod would work like a rodweeder and lift everything up and lay it on the surface, old crop residue and live weeds. It worked pretty darn good at killing the weeds and leaving residue on top to prevent wind and water erosion.
If there was way to much trash there could be a problem. Kinda made the land hard too but good at killing weeds.

[hobbyfrmr]

Pour farmer,
Yes I had a Morris 36 ft too. I changed to a Leon R-79 model. It's a totally different machine, far better. 1-1/8 diameter rod, heavier everything and more common sense in the drives and chains.

Farmaholic, yes a dead rod works well. I bought one so I could abandon the 36 ft Morris that pour farmer is talking about. Then I stumbled upon the Leon.

[Hopperbin]

Holy shit. You still using that leon. We also used to run a morris. Then a leon. Used to plant with a morris seedrite then rodweed. In cereals we rod weeded a few days later but before crop came up. Nothing left of it. Took all the rod weeder mechanical stuff off. Put rotary harrows on the frame it was 36feet. We pulled it behind 36 feet of air seeder behind cart. In 1997 abandonned it for air drill. Still have it.

[farmaholic]

We still have the dead rod in the back of the machine shed. But for the life of me cant remem er if we had it on the old 700 series Morris chisel plow or the 9000 series 42 foot Bourgault. Wouldn't be hard to figure out.....

We had that damn B3-36 Morris piece of crap too. Light duty=heavy maintenance!!!! The dead rod on cultivator had it beat hands down.

[hobbyfrmr]

We just finished a round of tillage. Spikes about 4 inches deep to loosen soil. Then pass the rdweeder, and I swear, the action of the live rod pulls out the thistles an extra 1.5-2 inches. This is where the prostrate roots are, and so, that root network gets interrupted.
I find less "patches" of thistle, but, of course, the random single plants are still around.

[pourfarmer]

I agree, rod weeder works well when working. Cant seem to do more then 20 ac without fixing something on this POS morris. Went back to cult for that reason, ill try and find a dead rod for the field cult.

Hobby Farmer, what are you using for plow downs? Ive tried fall and spring seeded clover and underseeded alfalfa, good results with both, but seed is getting expensive. Want to try faba beans next year.

[rkaiser]

Took on a 100 acre piece of ground in SW Alberta in the early eighties that my grandfather advised me on. It was 100 acres of thistles and plastic baler twine. Grandpa told me to hit the thistles that spring with my old graham holm chisel plow and hit em every time they popped their head until late July. Pulled more twine off them shanks than I had seen in my 6 years if cattle ranching up til that time. I think it was about Aug. 4 when we seeded rye and then had a helluva rain. Nice cover in the fall and a whale of a spring. Rye was over my six feet including hair in those days and not a thistle or any other weed to be found. Wacked it down with my haybine and baled it as I could not see my 410 massey having a sniff at all that straw. Next year I planted oats on half and barely on the other and we had a drought that made less than 10 bushels on the Oats and less on the Barley. Still f all for weeds. Next year we seeded grass. No organics - no certification - just simple farmin.

[farmaholic]

Where you at pourfarmer? I'm S.E. of Regina. I don't know if you can still buy new dead rods.

Did you guys have trouble keeping the rod of the rodweeder in the ground sometimes?

[farmaholic]

WOW, this surprised me. I didn't think they made them anymore (or recently).

http://www.ironsearch.com/DealerShipDetail/Walter-Implement-Inc/Odessa/5099822644/1457656.aspx