Tillage is a process of modifying soil structure before sowing crop seeds. Tillage is done to improve soil health as it is important for good growth of plants. Various types of ploughs are used for digging, turning and mixing soil so that all the layers can be exposed to air and sun to get natural ingredients, and finally giving it a suitable atmosphere for sowing seeds. Plough is also suitable agricultural machinery used to prepare a smooth seedbed for sowing plants seeds. Here we will discuss some majorly used modern ploughs used in farming.
Disc Plough
A disc plough uses a set of three to five concave discs that dig up the hardpan layers of the soil, giving it a smooth structure. It is best to be used in harsh and trashy lands, where moul bard plough don’t work. It digs up the soil properly and also crushes any clods in the soil.
Mould-board plough
A Mould-board plough can provide soil pulverization and also completely buries weed seeds and crop residue. Used as a secondary tillage equipment it plays major role when it comes to prepare seedbed.
It also allows uniform incorporation of fertilizers and pesticides by smoothing the soil surface. It preferably used for weed control by farmers. For wet soil conditions a fall mould-board plough system is best suitable.
Reversible MB Plough
A reversible mould-board plough or reversible plough turns the upper layer of the soil to the right or left side of direction or as required when taking rounds. It includes two sets of bottoms on opposite sides using one bottom for one direction and the other bottom for the other direction in the returning round. Both the bottoms are mounted in such a way that they can be raised or lowered individually and can also be rotated along an axis.
Although ploughing makes soil more productive but it also reduces its potential for wind and water erosion throughout the winter. Additionally, spring ploughing may also cause clods, resulting into unplanned tillage operations to prepare a seedbed. Thus farmers should check once before ploughing of they are using right type of plough as per the soil on there are farm, or if the soil need ploughing at all.
