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posted by n1 on Friday May 19 2017, @05:44AM   Printer-friendly
from the that-name-again-is-mr.-plow dept.

Submitted via IRC for Runaway1956

Chinese metal scientists announced they had developed a plow using a new steel alloy.

Plow was initially used in China over 2,000 years ago, centuries earlier than in Europe. However, Chinese farmers nowadays would rather pay over the odds for imported plows because of their better quality and durability.

The situation may soon change, thanks to the new research.

Yan Desheng, of the Institute of Metal Research under the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said the new metal was developed on the basis of boron steel, with micro-alloying elements and fine carbide added, so as to increase its hardness while keeping its high ductility.

The new material had been used to make over 1,000 farming tools, such as moldboard plows and rotary blades.

Source: China.org.cn


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 19 2017, @05:58AM (13 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 19 2017, @05:58AM (#512039)

    Is this like carbon fiber horse buggy?

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 19 2017, @06:08AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 19 2017, @06:08AM (#512043)

    Did you just invent a better buggy? Quick, patent your idea, and sell to the Amish.

  • (Score: 0, Disagree) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 19 2017, @06:13AM (11 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 19 2017, @06:13AM (#512045)

    You need to plow for most crops. Some GMO plants don't really need it, which saves diesel fuel and soil erosion.

    A plow is also good for removing land mines. :-)

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 19 2017, @06:18AM (3 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 19 2017, @06:18AM (#512047)

      My operation is 100% hydroponic.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 19 2017, @07:11AM (1 child)

        by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 19 2017, @07:11AM (#512062)

        Tell us more about your marijuana business.

      • (Score: 2, Offtopic) by c0lo on Friday May 19 2017, @10:37AM

        by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Friday May 19 2017, @10:37AM (#512112) Journal

        My operation is 100% hydroponic.

        Well, even so... how do you remove the mines?

        (grin)

        --
        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
    • (Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 19 2017, @08:54AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 19 2017, @08:54AM (#512089)

      > You need to plow for most crops.

      No, very few plants -need- freshly tilled soil. Plowing is a form of pest management but it's not mandatory, just orthodox. Aeration happens naturally from insects - less so if some human has dumped insecticide everywhere of course.

    • (Score: 2) by HiThere on Friday May 19 2017, @05:28PM (5 children)

      by HiThere (866) Subscriber Badge on Friday May 19 2017, @05:28PM (#512271) Journal

      The ones that don't need plowing aren't the GMO crops (well, some of them are), but rather the perennials. Those you don't want to plow, at least not deeply enough to damage their roots. For a "sort of" exception, orchards are often plowed...just very shallowly. This is to control weeds. or to allow other annual plants to be planted within the orchard.

      --
      Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
      • (Score: 2) by c0lo on Friday May 19 2017, @07:45PM (4 children)

        by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Friday May 19 2017, @07:45PM (#512328) Journal

        The ones that don't need plowing aren't the GMO crops (well, some of them are), but rather the perennials.

        You'll be surprised how small a number of annual crops actually need plowing - see no till farming [wikipedia.org] for a starter, explore further if interested.

        No-till farming (also called zero tillage or direct drilling) is a way of growing crops or pasture from year to year without disturbing the soil through tillage. No-till is an agricultural technique which increases the amount of water that infiltrates into the soil and increases organic matter retention and cycling of nutrients in the soil. In many agricultural regions it can reduce or eliminate soil erosion. It increases the amount and variety of life in and on the soil, including disease-causing organisms and disease suppression organisms. The most powerful benefit of no-tillage is improvement in soil biological fertility, making soils more resilient. Farm operations are made much more efficient, particularly improved time of sowing and better trafficability of farm operations.

        Tillage remains relevant in agriculture today, but the success of no-till methods in many contexts keeps farmers aware that multiple options exist. In some cases low-till methods combine aspects of till and no-till methods. For example, some approaches may use a limited amount of shallow disc harrowing but no plowing.

        --
        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
        • (Score: 2) by Immerman on Saturday May 20 2017, @12:31AM (3 children)

          by Immerman (3985) on Saturday May 20 2017, @12:31AM (#512457)

          This is a bit of a wild tangent, but while reading your post it suddenly occurred to me that one of the oldest and longest-term ways of enriching farmland, mixing in biochar, is radically underutilized today. Which seems odd to me, considering the amount of waste that you get from many crops - all those stalks and corncobs could be converted to char and plowed back into the soil, rapidly enriching it.

          At some point you'd no doubt reach "peak biochar" and want to stop before causing problems, but then your fields would be greatly enriched for the next several decades/centuries.

          • (Score: 2) by c0lo on Saturday May 20 2017, @12:47AM (1 child)

            by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Saturday May 20 2017, @12:47AM (#512462) Journal

            all those stalks and corncobs could be converted to char and plowed back into the soil, rapidly enriching it.

            They'll be even more effective in enriching the soil if you just ground or cut them, even better if you mix them with mushroom micellia before use.
            Charring will bring down the energy stored in chemical bonds - less energy for soil biome to use.

            --
            https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
            • (Score: 2) by Immerman on Saturday May 20 2017, @04:26PM

              by Immerman (3985) on Saturday May 20 2017, @04:26PM (#512637)

              Not really actually, at least not in the long term. Dig in the plant matter and they break down and get reabsorbed very quickly. Dig in charcoal and you enrich the soil for a very long time - centuries to millenia. It's not a matter of energy, or traditional fertilizing. The charcoal doesn't get reabsorbed, it jest sits there, pretty much inert, altering the soil chemistry/ecology for centuries. I don't remember the exact mechanism, or even if it's well understood at all.

          • (Score: 3, Informative) by Reziac on Saturday May 20 2017, @02:35AM

            by Reziac (2489) on Saturday May 20 2017, @02:35AM (#512492) Homepage

            Most of those stalks and corncobs become animal feed and winter bedding; they're not wasted. And fields are commonly grazed between harvest and snow, leaving lots of manure in its wake.

            --
            And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.