Wires Help Turn Uder Tall Crops

Wires Help Turn Uder Tall Crops TILLAGE EUIPMENT Plows 4-6-14 Canadian engineer D. R. Pattie of the University of Guelph has devised a simple way to loop wires back from the moldboards of a plow to cover about any height plant growth almost perfectly. Pattie's system, shown here, is different from the old, often-used trailing wire or chain method which some farmers have used for many years. With the old way, it was very difficult to turn around, and the wire didn't last long. With Pattie's system, for the second and subsequent furrows, you tie one end of the wire (14-ga. black wire works fine) low down at the rear of the preceding moldboard. Tie the other end to the moldboard making the slice that you want to bury the tall plants under. Tie the wire high up on its brace, up next to the plow beam. To turn crop under the front slice of the plow, tie one end of the wire high up on the front moldboard, and mount a special bracket to ride behind the right wheel of the tractor and attach the other end of the wire so that it is tied about where it would be if there were a moldboard there. "The secret is to get the wire down low on the first moldboard (or behind the right tire) and high up on the second moldboard," Pattie told FARM SHOW. "If you don't, it can tear the plow slice." The distance that the wire should loop back from its two tied points depends on the height of the plants to be covered, says Pattie. "You have to experiment a little bit to determine how far the wire should loop back, but the taller the material, the shorter the loop needs to be." He has used the idea only on a 16-in. moldboard plow, but is sure it would also work on other sizes. "The wire lasts a long time - at least several days," says Pattie. For further details, contact: FARM SHOW Followup, D. R. Pattie, School of Engineering, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, Can. NIG 2WI (ph 519 824-3857).

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