Terracing Add-Ons For Plows

Terracing Add-Ons for Plows TILLAGE EUIPMENT Miscellaneous 16-4-3 Moldboard plows be easily converted into low-cost terracers, according to a Kansas farmer who mounted three steel extension blades behind the middle three bottoms on his Deere 5-bottom plow. The blades catch loose soil as it comes off the moldboard and move it outward to form a terrace. Floyd Schuckman, of Ransom, bolts the 5/8-in. thick, 10-in. high pieces of road grader blade to brackets that bolt onto the back of the middle three moldboard shanks. The add-on blades are 3, 5, and 7 ft. long, from front to back. No permanent modification is made to the plow so it can be quickly converted back to straight moldboard plowing by removing one 5/8-in. bolt and one 1-in. bolt per blade. "It works as fast as a commercial terracer and makes terracing affordable for almost anyone," says Schuckman, who has used his plow to build 10 miles of terrace. A local manufacturer is now building the terracer blade system. "It takes only about 2 1/2 to 3 hours to build a half mile of terrace. A 3-blade setup for 4 or 5-bottom plows sells for $950 to $1,050. Good used semi mount plows can be bought for $600 to $800 so for a couple thousand dollars you can put together a terracer that compares with commercial units that cost $10,000 to $15,000. Custom terracers charge 12 to 15 cents per foot to rebuild terraces and 32 cents per foot tobuild new ones so I paid for the cost of the blades in the first two miles. The blades d' cause the plow to pull harder. I've found that three blades is about all my Deere 4555 160 hp tractor can handle. A 130 hp tractor could pull a three-blade model. Two blades can be used on a 3-bottom plow if you have a small tractor. One advantage of using a larger tractor is that it packs the soil, resulting in cloddy slabs that are less likely to erode from the terrace when plowed up." A steel support tube, which attaches to the end of each blade, fastens to the front of the plow with an adjustable-length chain. The steel tube and chain keeps the blades rigid and in line. A lift tube above blades holds them up when plow is out of ground. The mounting bracket that attaches to each plow shank can be adjusted to fit 14,16 or 18 in. bottoms. Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Steel Fabrications, 2250 E. 8th St., Hays, Kan. 67601 (913 625-3075).

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