The Disc

      This is a Disc.

     Some people might insist on calling them a disc harrow or a disc plow, but around here it's just a disc. When you use the disc you are discing and once you do it the field is disced. The "C" is always said with a "K" sound and never with an "S" sound. It is towed behind a tractor.
     You can see most of the tow bar in the above picture. You can also see the hydraulic systems that raise and lower the wheels. The wheels are for transport. When you're using the disc they stay up so that the individual disc blades can do their work.



     Here they are up close. What a disc does is break up and mix the top layer of the soil. It also cuts up any weeds or leftover crop matter. The blades are a concave shape and are angled so that the sharp side cuts strait but then the curve of the disc pushes the soil to the side. As the disc turns it takes this sideways motion and turns it into a rolling motion. The front bank of discs rolls the soil one way and the rear bank rolls it the other. This makes sure that the dirt is chopped and mixed into a usable texture. You might have noticed that the banks are angled in opposite directions. This is so that the individual disks aren't in each other's way and also so the dirt is placed back where it came from. A loose crumbly soil breathes better which is good for it, and is much easier to plant in. It's also easier to run other, less burly implements through later on.

     A disk is often used in conjunction with a wheel roller. Few implements are more strait-foreword than the wheel roller. It rolls. What this does is reduce the surface area of the soil by squashing it down a bit, while not squashing it so much that it can't breathe.

     If you zoom in on the above and below pictures you can kind of see the dirt being tossed by the discs. Notice how the unworked ground shows the dry surface on top while the worked ground is mixed so the moisture shows. The particularly astute reader might notice that losing moisture is a bad thing out here in the dryness of Owyhee County. The roller minimizes this through reducing the surface area and therefore it's exposure to the wind and sun.

     The days are fast approaching when the rest of the crops will be planted. The appearance of the disc in the fields is the first step towards the planting of most crops. The Disc lays down the groundwork (so to speak) of many things to come.