Yesterday I pulled the spike tooth over the newly plowed ground and got it pretty smooth. However, the low field still had some stubborn chunks down the middle so I brought the disc out and tried to grind them down some more. Cassie and Sebastian worked well as a team and were able to tune out Rosie's agitation back at the barn (only 400 feet away btw). Donkeys hate to be apart.
The upper field where the rye was did not turn out so well. The rye sod, being in wobbly rows, pushed the plow around and a lot of it was still standing after plowing, dragging, and discing. I think the problem with the plow is exacerbated by pulling with 3 abreast. The plow has to "walk over" so far to stay in the furrow that the side thrust is always there waiting to pull it back out of the furrow when the plowshare hits something like a stubborn root zone. I am going to try rigging the team 2-1, in kind of a reverse unicorn, the next time I plow. This will make them string out very long for my tiny headlands, but it will be fun to try! The principal will be the same as a 5-horse hitch of 3-2 which is a common plowing hitch for gang plows.
Long story short, I am going to put the corn into the low field, since it has a much better seedbed at this point. The upper field will get the cucurbits. Last year the cucurbits grew fantastically well in a former rye cover crop and in any case I think this rye is mostly terminated, thanks to being mowed twice.
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