Winchplough

[Unitof1]

This what I want for Christmas http://patlah.net/etm/etm-07/c-x%20agreg..._paset.htm

Translate winch plough into Russian and pop it into utube. Obviously this is what traction ploughing used to be all about, but I imagine that it is minimum compaction on soils and therefore might stop the nessecity for sub soiling. Maybe this should be the only type of ploughing allowed on scheduled sites. Also I imagine that it Needs a lot less fuel and is more sustainable. Yes I know it looks like they are using it on What looks like podzols or Loess, but a few more horses in the engine and we presumably have traditional plough designs suited to Britain. The original traction engines were only putting out 5 or 6 horses which is what I have in my lawn mower. I predict a revolution. This is The future, might even change the landscape across the world. We might even see ridge and furrow return across the midlands....

[Unitof1]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IqfKQ3liPmE

[Dinosaur]

Good to see I'm not the only one jinxed when it comes to starting anything with a pull-cord :face-approve:

Looks a bit tedious having to carry the plough back to the start each time though! And is that kid really old enough to be operating heavy(ish) machinery?...good straight furrow though

[kevin wooldridge]

Efficient winch ploughing as I saw it demonstrated once involves 2 static traction engines....so just row adjustment at the end of each stretch, no carrying the plough back to the start.....

[Dinosaur]

That's how I thought it was usually done, seem to recall a demonstration on tv years back, which included an alternative using one traction engine and a huge spindle stuck in the ground at the other end of the field, but they didn't explain how a ton of spindle got shifted along its side of the field...

[Unitof1]

Yes the traction era either have a balanced plough or do something like this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3PqO8d5tm5I but I think thazt you are over looking sustainability.

[Unitof1]

This why I am interested in winch ploughs and why tedious or efficiency is not the point

http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/publi...story.pdf/

in my grotty view the amount of damage done by "farming" without us archaeologists doing anything about it makes all the commercialism polluter pays principles applied to little old lady developers makes us a bunch of hypocrites particularly when it comes to using "significant" to justify planning conditions.

[Steve H]

The Vintage Farmers Day in our village regularly has a steam plough demo, consisting of two steam engines at either end of the field pulling a double sided plough with four plough blades on each side. You can easily see how Victorian ridge and furrow (very streight) was formed.
As an aside, anyone wanting to see how medieval ridge and furrow was formed, go and see a horse ploughing competition.

[P Prentice]

This why I am interested in winch ploughs and why tedious or efficiency is not the point

http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/publi...story.pdf/

in my grotty view the amount of damage done by "farming" without us archaeologists doing anything about it makes all the commercialism polluter pays principles applied to little old lady developers makes us a bunch of hypocrites particularly when it comes to using "significant" to justify planning conditions.

i seem to remember in the dim and distant, a paper which domonstrated that most fields dont need to be ploughed to achive a decent yield and in fact some would have a higher yield if they used direct drilling into stubble. simple matter of nuking the weeds thereafter

[Unitof1]

Theres been the went nowhere cosmic easy money for oxfordarchaeology world http://oxfordarchaeology.com/research-pr...ultivation which tried to make out that min-till does not involve extra deep subsoiling every few years

theres this going on(again oxford) http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/about...y-farmers/ although I cant find an outcome for it.