Tillage and Seeding « Informed Farmers

Rollers and Stone Pickers

By Asst Editor Damian M, on October 7th, 2011

Roller

The roller is an agricultural tool used for flattening land or breaking up large clumps of soil, especially after ploughing. Typically, rollers are pulled by tractors or, prior to mechanisation, a team of animals such as horses or oxen.

Flatter land makes subsequent weed control and harvesting easier, and rolling can help . . . → Read More: Rollers and Stone Pickers

Ploughs

By Asst Editor Damian M, on October 6th, 2011

The plough or plow is a tool used in farming for initial cultivation of soil in preparation for sowing seed or planting. It has been a basic instrument for most of recorded history, and represents one of the major advances in agriculture. The primary purpose of ploughing is to turn over the upper . . . → Read More: Ploughs

History of the plough

By Asst Editor Damian M, on October 6th, 2011

Hoeing

When agriculture was first developed, simple hand-held digging sticks or hoes would have been used in highly fertile areas, such as the banks of the Nile where the annual flood rejuvenates the soil, to create furrows wherein seeds could be sown. To grow crops regularly in less fertile areas, the soil must be . . . → Read More: History of the plough

Harrows

By Asst Editor Damian M, on October 6th, 2011

Disc Harro

In agriculture, a harrow (often called a set of harrows in a plurale tantum sense) is an implement for breaking up and smoothing out the surface of the soil. In this way it is distinct in its effect from the plough, which is used for deeper tillage. Harrowing is often carried . . . → Read More: Harrows

Cultivators

By Asst Editor Damian M, on October 6th, 2011

A cultivator is any of several types of farm implement used for secondary tillage. One sense of the name refers to frames with teeth (also called shanks) that pierce the soil as they are dragged through it linearly. Another sense refers to machines that use rotary motion of disks or teeth to accomplish a . . . → Read More: Cultivators

Seed Drill

By Asst Editor Damian M, on October 6th, 2011

A seed drill is a sowing device that precisely positions seeds in the soil and then covers them. Before the introduction of the seed drill, the common practice was to plant seeds by hand. Besides being wasteful, planting was very imprecise and led to a poor distribution of seeds, leading to low productivity. The . . . → Read More: Seed Drill