[montana]

Down here in Kent its been bone dry, harrowed last week, dragged out loads of thatch. We bought the smallholding in August and the people that had it before had horses and were organic ( which we found out to be a euphemism for lazy).
We have just had $ days of rain and the ground is a little spongy so going to tape the opportunity to give it a roll.

[ZacB]

Harrowing. Going to learn something here
I presume when you harrow it's like scarifing which I have done in the past. Brought up loads of thatch & moss etc etc Bagged up & put on compost or burned.
When harrowing a sizable area with tractor etc, where does all the rubbish go  or does it just sit on top 

[FiB]

Chain harrowing (like towing an old double bed size collection of chains) just spreads it all around a bit - picks up big sticks, brambles etc but mostly just do to flatten mole hills.  A neighbour ran over a couple of my fileds with a really swanky spring tyne harrow (lots of pointy prongs at the end of springs) as I have a lot of moss, and it did drag out quite a bit, but not as much as I imagined (comparied with scarifying a lawn), and deposites it wherever you lift the tynes (at the end of your field).

[Small Farmer]

I think "harrow" is the word with the most meanings in farming!  It doesn't help that manufacturers don't agree on the name for the same device.  I can think of the

Chain harrow, usually used on grass, trailed or mounted and arranged so that it works more aggressively pulled forwards than backwards.  You can also use it to make a seed bed.

Tine weeder with many thin trailing tines which some say does a better thatch clearing and weeding job on grass than the more common chain

Spring tine harrow is a cultivation implement used to rip through soil or after ploughing

Disc harrow has banks of steel discs set an angle to each other for use after ploughing to produce a seed bed

Drag harrow or grader levels your manège.  An inverted chain harrow can do this too

Power harrow is a version of the rotavator


Has anyone got a good guide to the uses of farm implements and machinery?  Around here 1000 acres is a small farm and a six row plough is traded in for something bigger.  Compact machinery is either very secondhand or very expensive, and it is difficult to get advice on how to use it - except here!

Rather depressingly the best YouTube clips come from EverythingAttachments though "Ted" has a accent which I fnd a bit grating and the terminology is different.  He does at least show how various bits of compact kit work though. 

[robert waddell]

you missed out the very important zig zag harrows  also the ridge harrows
aitkenhead used to be the main manufacturer of harrows in the UK i have a book that illustrates there product range and the application for each model
interesting your mention of the tine weeder it could also be used as a hay rake after balling

[Mel Rice]

Ive got a harrow...but I dont think my ex-racer will pull it! Ive no tractor so I might try the van!!! or borrow my friends ride on mower. I could ask my neighbour as hes already done his but that means money!

[SteveHants]

Bone dry here - could do with some rain, but not until we've harrowed.

Actually there's a wee problem - the tractor we're getting on loan, with a view to purchase, is in a shed behind a neighbour's combine and the combine won't start  Not the sort of vehicle you can push downhill and bump start 

You could pull it out with a tractor.......oh, wait...... .

[Remy]

I harrow my grass each spring when it's dry enough, usually end of March/April.  I think it's essential to rake out the dead grass/moss etc and the one year I didn't do it the grass didn't grow as well.  I also use it to spread the horse manure that has accumulated over winter!  I get great satisfaction from flattening the molehills and it doesn't do a bad job of the trenches made by my rooting pigs, although it can't quite return the soil to a nice even consistency  . 

Mine is a spring tine one with adjustable angle of the tines, so you can use it lightly or aggressively.  The debris from the fields usually ends up stuck in the tines which I have to extricate into a pile after I've finished  .

This year I harrowed and rolled all the fields to perfection, and since the start of April it has done nothing but rain and my beautifully harrowed and rolled horse paddock is now a muddy quagmire with nothing left on it resembling grass  .  I have to turn the horses back out onto the winter field (which I spent hours harrowing and rolling) and I'll have to start all over again when it's dry!! 

[Small Farmer]

This year I harrowed and rolled all the fields to perfection, and since the start of April it has done nothing but rain and my beautifully harrowed and rolled horse paddock is now a muddy quagmire with nothing left on it resembling grass  .  I have to turn the horses back out onto the winter field (which I spent hours harrowing and rolling) and I'll have to start all over again when it's dry!! 

Sounds familiar

[egglady]

i have a harrow type thing that i use in the horse arena, (logic) - does anyone know if i can use that yo harrow the field or would it be too lightweight?

[Small Farmer]

The things I've seen for manege levelling are pretty lightweight.  Chain harrows, the most versatile of the varieties, vary from very heavy to damn heavy and can be arranged to have the tines pointing forward or back for different levels of work.