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Concept
Disc harrow
Summary
A disc harrow is a harrow whose cutting edges are a row of concave metal discs, which may be scalloped or set at an oblique angle. It is an agricultural implement that is used to till the soil where crops are to be planted. It is also used to chop up unwanted weeds or crop residue.
It consists of many carbon steel discs, and sometimes longer-lasting boron steel discs, which have many varying concavities and disc blade sizes and spacing (the choices of the latter being determined by the final result required in a given soil type) and which are arranged into two sections ("offset disc harrow") or four sections ("tandem disc harrow"). When viewed from above, the four sections would appear to form an "X" which has been flattened to be wider than it is tall. The discs are also offset so that they are not parallel with the overall direction of the implement. This arrangement ensures that the discs will repeatedly slice any ground to which they are applied, in order to optimize the result. The concavity of the discs as well as their offset angle causes them to loosen and lift the soil that they cut.
A discer is an evolved form of a disc harrow, more suitable to Saskatchewan prairies, where it was developed in the 1940s. It does not leave ridging and it is lighter to pull, so it can be made bigger. After the 1980s their domination started to fade.
In various regions of the United States, farmers call these implements just discs (or disks), and they reserve the word harrow for the lighter types of harrow, such as chain and tooth harrows. Therefore, in these regions, the phrase "plowing, disking, and harrowing" refers to three separate tillage steps. This is not any official distinction but is how farmers tend to speak.
It is also common, at least in the United States, to consider to be a separate class of implement from discs (disc harrows). The first is a true plow, which does primary tillage and leaves behind a rough surface, whereas the second is a secondary tillage tool.
Official source
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