Farm Power And Machinery (1+1)

Plough

• The main implement for primary tillage is plough, which is used for ploughing operations.
  
• Ploughing is the primary tillage operations, which is performed to cut, break and invert the soil partially or completely.
  
• Ploughing essentially means opening the upper crust of the soil, breaking the clods and making the soil suitable for sowing seeds.
  
• The purpose of ploughing is to achieve the objectives of the tillage.
Types of ploughing:

• Normal Ploughing : It is the ploughing up to a depth of about 15 cm.
• Contour Ploughing: It is the method of ploughing in which the soil is broken and turned along the contours.
Ploughing of Land

• The ploughing of land is to separate the top layer of soil into furrow slices.
  
• The furrows are turned sideways and inverted to a varying degree, depending upon the type of plough being used.
  
• It is a primary tillage operation, which is performed to shatter soil uniformly with partial or complete soil inversion.
  
• There are a few important terms frequently used in connection with ploughing of land.
Furrow - It is a trench formed by an implement in the soil during the field operation.
Furrow slice- The mass of soil cut, lifted and thrown to one side is called furrow slice.
Furrow wall - It is an undisturbed soil surface by the side of a furrow.
Crown- The top portion of the turned furrow slice is called crown.
Back furrow - A raised ridge left at the centre of the strip of land when ploughing is started from centre to side is called back furrow. When the ploughing is started in the middle of a field, furrow is collected across the field and while returning trip another furrow slice is lapped over the first furrow. This is the raised ridge which is named as back furrow.
Dead furrow - An open trench left in between two adjacent strips of land after finishing the ploughing is called dead furrow.
Head land - While ploughing with a tractor to turn, a strip of unploughed land is left at each end of the field for the tractor to turn, that is called head land. At the end of each trop, the plough is lifted until the tractor and the plough have turned and are in position to start the return trip. The head land is about 6 metres for two or three bottom tractor plough and one metre more for each additional furrow. The Line diagram of different terminology used in ploughing is shown in Fig.11.1.



Fig. 11.1 Line diagram of different terminology used in ploughing