Is Moldboard Plowing No Longer Legit?

Since its start in 1837, John Deere has been the major manufacturer of moldboard plows. But that came to a halt in February of this year as the company’s last plow, a six-bottom unit with a price tag of $67,000, rolled off the Deere assembly line.

End of an Era

There’s no doubt that the self-scouring moldboard plow that first came out of John Deere’s blacksmith shop in 1837 had a major impact on the advancement of American agriculture. But with the shifts around the world to no-till and other reduced tillage practices over the past 50 years, the plow’s declining popularity seems to be coming to an end.

In the mid-1800s, the growing demand for moldboard plows got underway and never stopped for more than 100 years. By 1848, Deere was turning out 700 plows a year, expanding to an amazing 15,000 plows annually just a dozen years later.

By the mid-1950s, USDA estimated as many as 140,000 moldboard plows from numerous manufacturers were sold annually. Yet with the growing popularity of no-till and minimum tillage, plow numbers dwindled to fewer than 3,000 units shipped each year by the late 1980s.

In 1972, 85% of the farmed ground in the U.S. was conventionally tilled, with almost all being moldboard plowed. Yet this dropped to only 28% of the land in 2017.

From 1972 to 2018, the U.S. no-till acreage increased from 3.2 million acres to 109 million acres. Around the world, the no-till acreage in 2018 stood at 507 million acres, an amazing increase from 7 million acres in 1973.

There are plenty of quotations regrading the benefits of plowing that have been proclaimed over the years. But the one most often quoted by no-till proponents is an 80-year-old one. In 1943, Edward Faulkner in his book, Plowman’s Folly, wrote, “Nobody has ever advanced a scientific reason for plowing.”

Green Paint Legitimacy

Growers have jokingly said for years that if John Deere comes out with equipment for a new agronomic practice, then it must be a legitimate concept and not a flash-in-the-pan idea. That happened in 1978 when Deere introduced its first commercially successful no-till corn and soybean planter, the 7000 series. It took place again in 1985 when the company came out with the John Deere 750 drill that broadened no-till popularity and dramatically expanded no-till small grain and soybean production. At the time, it was said that this innovation had done more for no-till than any other equipment development in history.

This “green paint legitimacy” repeated itself again in 2022 when farmers jokingly said strip-till must be here to stay since Deere now is marketing strip-till units.

Since John Deere is no longer producing moldboard plows, does this mean plowing is no longer legitimate?