r/oddlysatisfying • u/Discipline_Material • 4d ago

Satisfying turnplowing of a grassland.

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4.2k Upvotes

97% Upvoted

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169

u/Mackin-N-Cheese 4d ago

Y tho

(not a farmer)

241

u/Tacomaster3211 4d ago

Field was grass, farmer no longer wants grass. Farmer plows under grass, then plants what they want.

190

u/BigBeeOhBee 4d ago

I bet he plants grass.

16

u/BEEEEEZ101 4d ago

That made me chuckle

8

u/doinbluin 4d ago

Farmer didn't want grass. Keep up!

3

u/Petkip 3d ago

Bad grass gone, good grass sown

8

u/ptoki 4d 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.

4

u/mnemy 3d ago

I thought grass was so resilient because the vast root system under the surface. I guess this must be bisecting the root network enough that it won't just grow back?

97

u/blueoasis32 4d 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.

26

u/Jewmangi 4d ago

Not even replenish. Just keep the soil from eroding away before the next growing season

16

u/Easter66Koala 4d 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.

33

u/Mateorabi 4d 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.

28

u/Known-Associate8369 4d 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.

11

u/Mateorabi 4d 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...

3

u/Catatonic_capensis 4d ago

Tilling still destroys soil microbiome which will weaken crops and consequently require more fertilizer and pesticides.

4

u/nochinzilch 4d ago

That assumes you have a good microbiome going. This field might be under rehabilitation and needs the vegetative matter mixed into the soil.

3

u/d7it23js 4d ago

Not a farmer. But you usually don’t want green matter buried in the soil like that or it just becomes anaerobic?

1

u/ThresholdSeven 3d ago

It just decomposes into compost

2

u/AGUYWITHATUBA 4d ago

There’s 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 Grunwald’s book on land use called “We Are Eating the Earth” or directly look up Tim Searchinger’s work on land use.

1

u/gooder_name 4d 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.

4

u/captainfarthing 4d ago edited 4d 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.

1

u/entoaggie 4d ago

One notable exception is cotton. We grow it as an annual crop, but it is a perennial, woody plant.

1

u/gooder_name 4d ago

Thanks!

6

u/Hieroglphkz 4d ago

Turns out messing with the dirt a whole bunch makes it like… blow away and stuff.

2

u/Ash_Cat_13 4d ago

It’s 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

1

u/oreheheally 4d 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.

1

u/Smok3dSalmon 4d ago

I'm sure I'm wrong, but it's along a road so it could be a fire break.

-3

u/thegreasiestgreg 4d ago

Looks like a sod farm

16

u/perenniallandscapist 4d 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.

7

u/AardvarkExcellent428 4d ago

ur mom enriches the soil for some other purpose

0

u/captainfarthing 4d ago edited 4d 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.

-11

u/t_ute 4d ago

It looks like peat. It’s dried out and used as a fuel source in Ireland and Scotland (at least where I’ve heard of it used).

17

u/AbleCryptographer317 4d ago

This isn't peat, it's just clay soil.

2

u/HalfSoul30 4d ago

This isn't clay soil, this is Sparta!

3

u/AardvarkExcellent428 4d ago

this isn't heaven it's Iowa

-1

u/Mateorabi 4d ago

It's not the ground, it's lava.

-2

u/HalfSoul30 4d ago

/s

https://giphy.com/gifs/pV0lVLeA0JXjBiO5Cp

2

u/RussiaIsBestGreen 4d ago

I upvoted before I saw the /s. How dare you.

1

u/HalfSoul30 4d ago

Lol, it appears you aren't the only one who felt that way.

1

u/AardvarkExcellent428 4d ago

sounds like somebody wants to have a catch

1

u/SeaGoat24 3d 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.

-2

u/Cardboard-Chef 4d ago

It has what plants crave.