Mouldboard

On modern ploughs and some older ploughs, the mouldboard is separate from the share and runner, so these parts can be replaced without replacing the mouldboard.

A couple of the oldest items offered were an old John Shearer six-row mouldboard plough on steel wheels with a good number of spare shears.

A major advance for this type of farming was the turnplough, also known as the mouldboard plough (UK), moldboard plow (US), or frame-plough.

Because of these attributes, the use of a chisel plough is considered by some to be more sustainable than other types of plough, such as the mouldboard plough.

By the Han period, the entire ploughshare was made of cast iron ; these are the first known heavy mouldboard iron ploughs.

In addition, the resulting pattern of low (under the mouldboard) and high (beside it) ridges in the soil forms water channels, allowing the soil to drain.

It doesn't make as good a job as the mouldboard plough (but this is not considered a disadvantage, because it helps fight wind erosion), but it does lift and break up the soil (see disc harrow ).

Reversible plough A four-furrow reversible Kverneland plough The reversible plough has two mouldboard ploughs mounted back-to-back, one turning to the right, the other to the left.

S.A.) blacksmith, noted that the ploughing of many sticky, non-sandy soils might benefit from modifications in the design of the mouldboard and in the metals used.

The mouldboard plough greatly reduced the amount of time needed to prepare a field, and as a consequence, allowed a farmer to work a larger area of land.

The ploughshare spread the cut horizontally below the surface, so when the mouldboard lifted it, a wider area of soil was turned over.