Question about a plowed very old crop field

[CTwoods]

Two years ago, I stumbled onto what must have been a very early homesite or cabin site in a field that is still being plowed each year. My first three 2 hour hunts gave up so many early things like coppers, a 1726 reale, shoe buckles, knee buckle, batwing buckles, thimbles and dozens of very early buttons.

I always waited till fall after harvest and found more each time.

This past winter was mild, so I did hunt there a bit more, and found some stragglers that I missed since I hunted after last fall harvest. But after this spring tilling, I tried it again, but had to quit in less than 10 minutes because I saw fresh seeds that had just been planted. But I found a slick large copper coin in the first 3 minutes! I just went back yesterday now that the corn is a foot tall, so I am now not damaging the crop.

I fully expected to find at least a few early buttons, a couple of coppers, and more broken shoe buckle parts, and relics... But there were almost ZERO hits of non-ferrous targets? I did find only one keeper item; a 1864 indian head, but nothing else old.

I am not a super expert MDer, nor do I have a super machine that could clean everything out down to a foot, so why has the hot spot dried up completely with fresh tilling? I was hoping this field would produce for many years to come, after each tilling. I don't know if they shallow till with a disc harrow, or if they till deeper with a bottom plow, but I am still bewildered on why there was almost nothing yesterday.

 

Amazon Forum Fav 👍

DR.ÖTEK Metal Detector, Waterproof Gold Detector, Pinpoint & Terrain Modes, Professional Metal Detector - Grab it through Amazon!

[Digzit2]

Maybe you have found all there is to find?

 

[CTwoods]

Maybe you have found all there is to find?

I know there are things still there, because I found many shattered shoe buckle frames and broken crotal bells, and only find some matching pieces that fit together.

I guess I am asking if modern farming does not plow as deep, compared to the old bottom plows?

I read forums and look at videos of people who hunt in hay fields that will never be plowed, and those people do say they get to a point where they can't find any more brass or copper bits. But I thought most people say that yearly plowing always brings up more finds. I went from finding multiple things in just 1 or 2 hour hunts, to almost zero....like a light switch being turned off.

 

[fishstick]

Modern farming SUCX!!!!! They don't turn enuff ground over anymore so the finds DO dry up. TRULY SAD...

 

[kcm]

They only need to plow so far down. Anything beyond that and they're wasting fuel. I don't know what size field this is or what size/model tractor is working it, but a front wheel assist John Deere with about 145hp uses 8 gallons per hour in the field, minimum. For every additional inch that is plowed, the operator can expect to use increasingly more fuel. Also, bottom plows are used for breaking up new ground - most of the farmers that I know of in MN use discs, which don't go deep at all, but get the needed work done faster.

Also, plants only need the top few inches loosened for easy, strong starting. After that, the plants can easily send roots down into harder soil looking for water.

 

[Calabash Digger]

I can tell you this I hunted a place this year with my buddy that had been beat in the past and he found a draped lc and I found a half reale but that was about it it was a lucrative site in the past but I believe it will give up a little each year after its been plowed. heres something to think about I upgraded my machine and those dead sites became alive again.

 

[Tom_in_CA]

... so why has the hot spot dried up completely with fresh tilling? I was hoping this field would produce for many years to come, after each tilling.....

They only need to plow so far down. Anything beyond that and they're wasting fuel......

Kcm hit the nail on the head. There is a misconception that tilling/plowing continues to "bring up" targets endlessly, every time it's plowed. But stop and think: If they're plowing to perhaps 1 ft. (just for sake of argument) each time. And assuming that 1 ft. is the depth-to-which you can get coin-sized objects (just for sake of argument). Then go figure that a few smaller objects (1/2 reales, little buttons, etc ...) could indeed be brought into closer range. But after awhile, the odds are, you CAN clean out all the objects in a plowed field, EVEN with added plowing.

Yes I know this doesn't perfectly answer your question, if your field had not been repeatedly hunted after multiple plowings. But just wanted to put the rest the mis-conception that "plowing makes it all virgin all over again".

Ask any British hunter (where they do 99% of their hunting on cultivated fields). And they will tell you this fact: That their better fields do indeed begin to suffer from getting worked out. To the point that additional plowing does not "bring up" any more targets. The exception would be if there is some sort of crop (potatoes?) that calls for deeper (2 ft?) deep furroughs, that had not previously been called for.

 

[trapperart]

One trip with no finds means nothing especially with the corn a foot high limits your swing. I've been hunting some fields constantly for four seasons. A lot of variables are in play, soil matrix, moisture even humidity plays a roll. Sometimes a different coil or pass direction helps. You keep hunting that field and the good stuff will come. Good luck. Art

 

[whammy]

Don't give up, you just didn't get your coil over a target. My favorite field gives up something good about once every four or five trips there, but I still go. Also when the ground freezes during the winter, sometimes it pushes stuff around or brings stuff up where you can detect it.

 

[CTwoods]

I read every reply slowly, and if I combine all that was said...it does make sense now. This afternoon I went to another field they own that is twice the acreage, but was very far from any early homesite. This field gives up so very little non-ferrous, and zero pottery or stoneware fragments. Same corn crop, same farming tilling with same machines. I tested the theory mentioned about shallow disc tilling, by digging deeper when I dug out a target: The soil got real stiff at 4" down, and that soil looks dead, like no topsoil or organics mixed in.

Corn roots seem to run outwards, not downwards at all, so I can see why they don't want to till deeper.

Also, yesterdays hunt in the good field was an hour after a heavy rain, so moisture could have affected my hunt...someone mentioned soil moisture here.

Just trying to learn field hunting, after years of woods-only hunts.

I did learn the value of looking and picking up pottery and stoneware fragments, as when I look at the yearly amount of them from each field, and where in that field, I can tell something was there....or not there.


By the way, I don't give up, and I don't expect good finds in each hunt. I was just surprised about yesterdays hunt.

 

[kcm]

Actually, corn roots can grow 3' to 4' down in search of water. The larger roots tap down for water, while the thin, stringy roots stay near the nutrient-rich surface.

 

[Tuberale]

I don't think it is a matter of how you are hunting, so much as where you are hunting. The area where you have hunted previously may be getting played out. It is impossible to clean out any field of over 5 acres in size using a MD. You simply can't cover that much ground in 1 day (or 3,5,10,15,20, etc.) Try choosing a different portion of the field next time.

 

[Tom_in_CA]

Actually, corn roots can grow 3' to 4' down in search of water. The larger roots tap down for water, while the thin, stringy roots stay near the nutrient-rich surface.

You bring up a good point. And that is: Some type crops intrinsically require deeper plowing than other types. So if a crop required " 3 or 4 ft", then the length of time it would take for a field to get worked out, is significantly longer. Because if you can only access the top foot of depth, for instance , then that's only 1/3 to 1/4 of the available targets at any given time. But if you work it long enough and hard enough, you will eventually thin it out.

Where I'm at is leaf vegetables (lettuce, broccoli, cauliflower, etc...) Those don't seem to be more than a foot deep plowing. So only the deepest smallest targets do we have perpetual chance of "yet another" coming up with any subsequent plowing. But the larger items quickly get less and less frequent. As those seemed to be the easier to hear at any given time.

 

[kcm]

Tom, even with corn, a bottom plow is ONLY used to break new ground, or old ground that hasn't been worked for more than a decade. For fields that are in crop rotation most every year, farmers use discs almost exclusively. Discs work faster and use less fuel than plows. They only go down a few inches, but the plants don't need anything deeper. The main point of loosening the topsoil on worked ground is 1) to help warm the ground after winter, in preparation for planting 2) to allow water and any added fertilizers (if used) easy penetration into the topsoil 3) to mulch up grasses and weeds that have taken root since last harvest. Depending on the crop type, after discing, they may also come back with a furrow attachment to make the planting rows.

 

[Tom_in_CA]

KCM, ok, then I mis-understood you, re.: corn depths. I've heard that potatoes require deeper workings than other crops. So if a field in Britain, that had previously never had potatoes, but is now getting potatoes for the first time (or the first time in a long time) the md'rs now that this will mean deeper plowing than previously

 

[kcm]

 

[Professor of Engineering]

Very interesting thread! Thank you...

 

[fishstick]

Tom, even with corn, a bottom plow is ONLY used to break new ground, or old ground that hasn't been worked for more than a decade. For fields that are in crop rotation most every year, farmers use discs almost exclusively. Discs work faster and use less fuel than plows. They only go down a few inches, but the plants don't need anything deeper. The main point of loosening the topsoil on worked ground is 1) to help warm the ground after winter, in preparation for planting 2) to allow water and any added fertilizers (if used) easy penetration into the topsoil 3) to mulch up grasses and weeds that have taken root since last harvest. Depending on the crop type, after discing, they may also come back with a furrow attachment to make the planting rows.

Not always!! Several farmer around here bottom plowed EVERY year. Now mind you that was years back and they were old timers before all the new fancy seeds and machines. They grew some GREAT crops!! I believe bottom plowin helps target get to detectable depths by making the ground easier for them to rise up in, you know the risen and fallin from the seasons. With all the no-till nowadays it makes it tuff for sure but I have found out that after they run an airarator( however you spell it) I have a decent year there. It's a tool that goes down about 18" and heves the ground a lil'. Diff areas use Diff methods!! Hunt it till you don't get a SQEEK!!!! GL&HH...

 

[kcm]

Thanks for the info Fishstick. Yeah, didn't want to turn this into a Farming thread. Would've taken me 4 paragraphs to say what you did with 4 lines!

 

[fishstick]

Thanks for the info Fishstick. Yeah, didn't want to turn this into a Farming thread. Would've taken me 4 paragraphs to say what you did with 4 lines!

Lol, thank ya sir..