Translations:Manfred Klett: Von der Agrartechnologie zur Landbaukunst/734/en

The maxim in early spring is: «So früh wie möglich hinaus auf den Acker.» This makes the impatience described above understandable. The aim is to level the field, to encourage crumbling through the warming and aeration of the soil, and to create a first seedbed for the weeds. This purpose is served by the first working pass in the course of the year — the drag-levelling. It has become superfluous in agro-chemical farming through the use of herbicides. For reasons of cost and on account of the high weights of tractors, the working passes for preparing the seedbed are combined directly with sowing. In biodynamic farming, where conditions allow and wherever possible, drag-levelling and one or two harrow passes should precede sowing, in order to uproot the weeds still at their tender seedling stage and allow them to dry out. At the same time, crumb formation and substance transformations are stimulated, capillary water rise is interrupted, and thereby the winter moisture is retained in the soil.