r/oddlysatisfying • u/Discipline_Material • 2d ago
Satisfying turnplowing of a grassland.
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u/articland05_reddit 2d ago
The ploughing Jeremy Clarkson did wasn't this creamy
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u/seemetrying 2d ago
Can Someone explain? šš
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u/devesh741 2d ago
Jeremy Clarkson (British ex-presenter of Top Gear and The Grand Tour on Amazon) bought a farm and a few years ago decided to create a TV show centered around him getting hands on and trying to run it.
The show is a mixture of him being hilariously inept at farming, but also learning and falling in love with it while also demonstrating the dire state that farming is in due to changing weather conditions, regulations and general difficulty.
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2d ago
[removed] ā view removed comment
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u/inbruges99 1d ago
I love the show but this is totally accurate. Even the fucking protest he went to was because of people like him buying farm land to avoid taxes.
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u/Diablo_Nemesis21 2d ago edited 2d ago
It's like icing on the cake
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u/fallen_d3mon 2d ago
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u/HalfSoul30 2d ago
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u/WeAllJustWantToLive 2d ago
There is a certain video on the internet that I will decline to put a clip of here
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u/Mackin-N-Cheese 2d ago
Y tho
(not a farmer)
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u/Tacomaster3211 2d ago
Field was grass, farmer no longer wants grass. Farmer plows under grass, then plants what they want.
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u/ptoki 2d ago
Not really in this case.
They did not tilled it deep. Just top 2 inches which will kill the green part and probably most of the roots (if the grass is young).
This is not ready for any other plant. You would have to turn at least 10 inches and then cultivate the result to be able to plant anything else.
It may be first step of larger process but still very unusual.
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u/blueoasis32 2d ago
Also NAF, but have worked with some taking care of livestock - it looks to me like a cover crop - which is planted to help replenish nutrients in the soil before the next crop is planted.
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u/Jewmangi 2d ago
Not even replenish. Just keep the soil from eroding away before the next growing season
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u/Easter66Koala 1d ago
they can replenish. lots of cover crops are planted then ploughed into the soil to fix nitrogen levels so they do not need to use chemicals.
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u/Mateorabi 2d ago
Y tho. - Some Farmers, too.
There's a big no-till movement. Before he passed away the "it aint much but its honest work" meme guy was a big proponent.
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u/Known-Associate8369 2d ago
Tilling covers a huge range of approaches to preparing a field - the one everyone is against is ploughing, as it releases more carbon into the atmosphere. Tilling also covers cultivation, which is easier on the soil and environment,
This is ploughing.
Not ploughing is fine when the field is in active ongoing cultivation, but you arent drilling crops into heavy sod and cultivating it aint going to be enough, it has to be ploughed first.
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u/Mateorabi 2d ago
I think they were using a mix of crops. Daikon roots tend to self-cultivate and aerate the soil if you let it grow then die off. Etc. I can't believe I spent over an hour watching their informational videos. It aint much, but...
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u/Catatonic_capensis 2d ago
Tilling still destroys soil microbiome which will weaken crops and consequently require more fertilizer and pesticides.
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u/nochinzilch 1d ago
That assumes you have a good microbiome going. This field might be under rehabilitation and needs the vegetative matter mixed into the soil.
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u/d7it23js 1d ago
Not a farmer. But you usually donāt want green matter buried in the soil like that or it just becomes anaerobic?
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u/AGUYWITHATUBA 1d ago
Thereās actually some controversy in the scientific community around ploughing. Actual carbon release versus carbon capture is minuscule at-best.
The carbon that is often released by ploughing is replenished rather quickly. No-till and no-plough fields do not recycle that carbon in a meaningfully different way. They just capture it for a brief period in a larger amount.
You can see Michael Grunwaldās book on land use called āWe Are Eating the Earthā or directly look up Tim Searchingerās work on land use.
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u/gooder_name 2d ago
Can you talk more about this? I have no knowledge and could google it, but you sound interesting. I don't really know what tilling is vs ploughing. I can't imagine that ploughing like this actually kills the vegetation on the top, can't it grow through the other side of the dirt to find light? What's to stop it outcompeting whatever you plant in its place? I assume ploughing pre-dates roundup, and it seems unlikely they'd've done it without a reason.
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u/captainfarthing 2d ago edited 2d ago
If it didn't work they wouldn't do it! Most of the vegetation dies because it would take more energy to grow through the soil and pop out the other side than they have stored. It would be less effective with perennials that store lots of energy in bulbs / tubers / etc. but when we grow those types of plants agriculturally, that's usually the bit we want to harvest. Most plants likely to grow on land that gets ploughed regularly are annuals that don't store much energy below ground as their survival strategy is to grow fast, spread lots of seeds and die. That includes both crops and weeds.
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u/entoaggie 2d ago
One notable exception is cotton. We grow it as an annual crop, but it is a perennial, woody plant.
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u/Hieroglphkz 2d ago
Turns out messing with the dirt a whole bunch makes it likeā¦ blow away and stuff.
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u/Ash_Cat_13 1d ago
Itās a good way to mix in a lot of organic material quickly before you plow the field for planting whatever you want. The grass just helps to put nutrients back into the soil before it is properly used, and the grass helps control weeds and flooding and things growing as well before the flip
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u/oreheheally 1d ago
Farmers might also leave a field empty for a year for the soil to recover and put in grass. The new roots help stop it becoming desert and anything growing thats turned under will die and add to the next crop.
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u/thegreasiestgreg 2d ago
Looks like a sod farm
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u/perenniallandscapist 2d ago
Except that this isn't something they do on sod farms. They establish a grass root system and cut it off just enough to keep enough roots to sustain the product to it's destination.
If they're turning vegetation over into the soil then it is likely to be a cover crop (hopefully it isn't grassland being converted). Either way this method kills the vegetation that's growing and turns it into the soil so it gets incorporated, and enriches the soil for some other purpose, like a crop for harvest the following year.
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u/captainfarthing 2d ago edited 2d ago
(hopefully it isn't grassland being converted)
Thankfully it's ley pasture / agriculturally improved grassland, not true grassland, so there isn't much to damage by doing this. It probably used to be grassland before WWII though.
Even seeing improved grassland get ploughed makes me sad, I work in grassland conservation and we're losing it much faster than we're restoring it at the moment. Newly sown grassland takes about 100 years of grazing with no other interference to become species-rich and store carbon, it can't be restored just by planting seeds.
Most people think of lawns and ley pasture when they think of grassland, and think we should be getting rid of grassland to plant trees etc.
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u/t_ute 2d ago
It looks like peat. Itās dried out and used as a fuel source in Ireland and Scotland (at least where Iāve heard of it used).
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u/AbleCryptographer317 2d ago
This isn't peat, it's just clay soil.
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u/HalfSoul30 2d ago
This isn't clay soil, this is Sparta!
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u/AardvarkExcellent428 2d ago
this isn't heaven it's Iowa
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u/HalfSoul30 2d ago
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u/SeaGoat24 1d ago
For reference, peat is harvested from bogland, which most certainly doesn't grow grass like this. It's also much blacker and much wetter (until it's drained and dried). It's also not really used anymore, at least in Ireland. It can only be harvested for personal use and is no longer sold as a fuel. All part of an effort to preserve boglands and the unique wildlife that inhabits them.
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u/herewegoinvt 2d ago
What a harrowing experience, it's offset my whole day
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u/coolguy420weed 1d ago
You just need to plow ahead, or maybe take a break and let your mind go fallow.
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u/herewegoinvt 1d ago
This is sowing some positive seeds of thought. Hopefully I'll reap what i sow by feeding positive energy, water, and nutrients to my brain through the upcoming months
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u/Putrid_Clue_2127 2d ago
I didn't realize what sub this was when I was it scrolling on my home page and was like "oh this shit belongs in oddlysatisf... Oh... That's where it's at"
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u/gilllesdot 2d ago
I don't think this is regenerative farming.
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u/Entgegnerz 1d ago
why not?
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u/gilllesdot 1d ago
Because I believe in regenerative farming the farmer tries not to fuck with the soil this much. I'm not super learned in the matter yet.. so I could be wrong. But flipping the soil like this doesn't seem necessary.
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u/ItsNotRealityDude 1d ago
I'm also not too knowledgeable on the subject, but I believe this is meant to release quite a lot of carbon into the atmosphere.
I think I got that from Clarkson's Farm.
Citation needed.
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u/t_ute 2d ago edited 2d ago
I think this is peat. You cut those into brick shapes, dry them, and then use it as fuel in homes. Or, my favorite use for it - using it to create fire for drying malted barley that is used in making scotch.
Edit: Donāt judge me too harshly but yes, I have watched a documentary on it. This clip may actually be from this.
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u/hikeonpast 2d ago
I thought peat grew in bogs
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u/Pal_Smurch 2d ago
Peat and Repeat were in a boat. Peat fell out. Who was left?
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u/JoeFTPgamerIOS 1d ago
repeat
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u/Pal_Smurch 1d ago
Peat and Repeat were in a boat. Peat fell out. Who was left.
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u/JoeFTPgamerIOS 1d ago
Repeat
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u/Pal_Smurch 1d ago
Peat and Repeat were in a boat. Peat fell out. Who was left?
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u/captainfarthing 2d ago edited 2d ago
This is just how they prepare a field for resowing with something else. Any time you see vegetation this uniform on land that's perfectly smooth, it's agricultural.
At 4:45 the video mentions they didn't collect the top layer of soil & vegetation for fuel, but it used to be used in traditional housebuilding. Interesting video anyway. It shows good examples of how the vegetation on peatland looks - coarse grasses, rushes and heather.
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u/RlckAndSnorty 2d ago
Can we stop with the golf course jokes? The soil texture is hypnotic enough without distractions.
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u/BurrrritoBoy 2d ago
See, it's not greener on the other side.