tips on maximising use of chisel plow (not yeomans)?

I couldn't find a yeomans plow in my area, what I have is the chisel plow. I'm going to chisel my compacted land up, roughly on contour, and plant alfalfa. I was wondering if anyone had any advice for me to best proceed without having the triangle tipped yeoman plow blade which I read works a lot better. The plow isn't mine on a permanent basis, i wish there were somethinng like yeomans shoe attachments i could put on the blades or something, but this seems too much to hope for. Anyway given the apparent shortage of yeomans plows in the usa i thought a workaround may exist.

Cliff,

I think the chisel plow will work for you. PA Yeoman took many years to perfect his plow. The Yeoman company does sell the plow shanks/tips so it might be worth looking in to. Root development can occur with additional water infiltration. Probably biggest downside to traditional chisel plow is amount of soil disturbance. Yeoman figured out how to fracture the soil without a lot of inversion.

Kevin

thanks for your reply kevin, its appreciated.

Howdy folks.

Pardon me for bumping an old thread - though it's related. This is my first time doing anything crop/tractor related.

Short version :

What : Chisel or Disc a field? Caveat : it hasn't been tilled in 10 years?

Why : Broadcast multi-manure seed mix to build soil for next years cropping season.

Long version :

I'm working on a 3/4 acre plot that has not seen any activity in a decade (i.e agricultural / cultivation). The odd heavy machinery has rolled on over it and it has been severely grazed however for the most part it is a lush meadow of native grasses, herbs and bushes for a brief period during the rains after which it goes back to looking like a posterchild for desertifcation. Now the plan is for intercropping so there will be canopy tree's planted at every 40 feet with nitrogen fixing trees at intervals for shade and chop and drop. I'd like to heavy seed between the tree rows with a multimanure mix that can be incorporated back into the soil at around 60 days and then build the soil for the first cropping season next year.

No fancy equipment around, basically all I want it furrows in the soil where the multimanure seeds broadcasted will get washed in and sprout.  However both discing /chisel seem like they open up the entire surface area. Which from the seeding point of view isn't bad but I want to make sure the lowest amount of soil is turned and maximum infiltration.

Soil has a carpet of grasses and any disruption to it is an invitation for a LOT of less desirable plants to burst into life (all those dormant seeds need about 1 millionth of a second of sunlight and moisture and BOOM).

Thank you!