Rice Farming in Iga from Scratch 42: Spring Plowing and Communicating with Soil, Nature, and Machinery

It has been about two months since I picked stones from the fields during the winter off-season.

Entering March, the season for spring plowing has finally arrived, with an eye toward rice planting during the Golden Week holidays in May.

This is the work of tilling the rice fields with a tractor to help the rice seedlings take root better and to plow under the weeds that start to grow in the spring.

This time, there were several points to be careful about when operating the tractor, so I would like to summarize them one by one.

Points to note when driving a tractor through mud

First, here is the rice field where water leakage from the irrigation channel is occurring.

Under a clear, cloudless sky, I head out to the rice field on the tractor.

As expected, with the water leakage from the irrigation channel this advanced, I have to be careful with the tractor's operation.

The tractor is heavier at the rear, where the rotary with its rotating tines is attached, and the rear end keeps sinking into the muddy, leaking soil.

Because of this, if I dig too deep into the soil or if mud gets tangled in the rotary, it puts a load on the rotating parts, and the sound of the engine changes.

For this reason, while driving, I had to constantly check both the rear and the front, keeping the tractor moving straight while continuing to watch closely so that the rotary would not sink too deep.

Now in my fourth year, I can feel my driving skills gradually improving, and I am steadily making progress with the tilling.

Finally, a problem occurred when I was going around the perimeter.

The rotary got caught in the mud, and the tractor came to a sudden stop.

Fortunately, the tires were not stuck in the mud to the point where I couldn't get out, so I tried to start the engine again, but the starter motor wouldn't turn.

It wouldn't make a sound.

It seems the battery, which I had been nursing along for some time, had finally reached the end of its life.

I had no choice but to contact Kubota, and I was able to resolve the situation by having the battery replaced.

Having finished plowing this field, it became clear that the soil color gets lighter toward the back, making it obvious how the water has been seeping in from the front side.

Even so, having finished the most difficult part, I feel I can approach the next field with more ease.

What if the soil has shifted to the edges of the field?

Next is the field in front of the sacred grove.

There are no particular water leaks here, but the growth of green weeds is quite noticeable.

Weeds not only steal the nutrients intended for the rice plants to grow, but they can also become an obstacle for later work, such as getting caught in machinery during harvest.

Therefore, it is important to remove them carefully and be mindful of preventing weed seeds from falling into the field and proliferating later.

Reflecting on such things, I began plowing this field as well.

By the way, I have suffered from hay fever since I was in elementary school, and my symptoms became particularly severe during this work.

When plowing dry soil with a tractor, dust flies up and enters my nose, but it seems that fine particles were also kicked up and acted as an irritant.

I couldn't stop sneezing and had to get off the tractor to go back and get some tissues.

The sky is clear this time, but sometimes it turns a cloudy white when mixed with chemical substances coming from the continent.

Seasonal allergy symptoms made me inadvertently start thinking about the global environment as well.

What I was particularly conscious of in this field was returning the soil to the center of the field as much as possible.

Plowing with a tractor tends to push the soil toward the back.

As you go over the same course again and again, the soil eventually shifts from the center of the field to the edges, which can cause unevenness when the field is flooded or affect growth, such as preventing water from reaching the seedlings evenly after planting.

To avoid such a situation, you can utilize the reverse rotation function of the tractor's rotary tiller.

By moving forward while rotating the rotary tines in reverse, you can move the soil that has gathered at the edges toward the center.

The operation method is to shift the PTO gear into 'reverse'.

In addition to reversing the rotation direction of the tines, you can also till the soil more finely by increasing the rotation speed, or conversely, perform rough plowing by decreasing the rotation speed.

I heard that this kind of work used to be done with cattle instead of tractors, and I want to thank my grandfather for leaving me this beloved machine.

Well, I was able to finish plowing successfully while keeping in mind to move the soil toward the center.

This time, by deepening my own understanding of and communication with the soil and machinery, I was able to calmly deal with rice fields that had different conditions.

Of course, since different climatic conditions overlap every year, there is no 100% correct answer, but I would like to continue to strive to put the wisdom I have acquired into practice.

Now, the next step is puddling at the end of April. Rice planting is finally approaching.