Ploughing is a form of cultivation of the ground that helps prepare the soil to create a seedbed. Ploughing typically takes place in the autumn or early spring months and involves turning over the top nine inches of soil. This buries surface debris and loosens the soil so that seeds can be sown.

Ploughing has been practiced in the UK for around 6,000 years. The earliest ploughs literally scratched the soil into small ridges. These ploughs were made of wood and quickly wore out. It was not until the iron age that the "plough share" (the wearing part in the soil) had a metal point. In Roman times many different types of plough existed. These were stronger and had iron boards that made it possible to plough deeper and more effectively. By the twelth and thirteenth centuries the horse replaced the oxen and the daily output of the ploughman doubled.

Nowadays ploughing is fully mechanised and a tractor can plough as much as 30 times as a man with a horse. On this farm ploughing is under way in september as part of the preparation for drilling (sowing) a crop in october. On the plough are a number of mouldboards which turn over the soil. Each board "cuts" a furrow through the ground.

The ground on the left is the stubble (straw) from the previous crop. This is turned over by the plough and weed seeds and debris rot down underground. Ploughs turn over about nine inches of soil and it will depend on the type of soil as to what happens next. If the soil is "light" the farmer may be able to drill directly into it. But if not other cultivations may be required to create a seedbed for the crop.

This soil has a smeared shiny appearance. This is indicative of a higher clay content in the soil. Clay makes the soil "sticky" and difficult to break down and this field will need additional cultivation before the next crop can be sown.

At the end of the field the tractor has to turn round. This involves lifting the plough out of the ground and turning it over. You can see the shiny mouldboards above and below the central beam of the plough. The whole beam is turned through 180 degrees to allow the ploughman to drive back down the line he has just ploughed.

The action of the mouldboards in lifting and turning the soil is demonstrated here.

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