Finishing Touches

     When a field really needs to be smoothed out, (such as right after you use the scraper on it) a farmer will often bring in a land plane.

     It's long, that you can see. That's to spread out the three points at which the land plane touches the ground. The frame of the land plane is rigid vertically, but flexible horizontally. This is important for the work the land plane does. In simplified terms, what the land plane does is create a flat "plane." (Plane means flat surface.)

     The center contact point is a blade between two wheels. Because the frame is rigid vertically, if either the front or rear wheels are lower than the middle of the plane, the blade will cut down the high point in the middle. If the front or rear wheels are higher than the middle of the plane it will drop whatever dirt it is carrying in the low spots. The operator can adjust how drastic the changes the float makes will be by raising or lowering the blade with the hydraulic system. It does a pretty good job.

     With this field flattened to satisfaction, it's one step closer to being planted. I'm not going to tell you what's going to be planted into it just yet, but I am going to tell you, it's pretty exciting. Stay tuned!