# Why Would You Plow Your Crop Under?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-would-you-plow-your-crop-under/836693>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [July 8, 2019, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-would-you-plow-your-crop-under/836693 "2019-07-08T01:47:59Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 2

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\
**Post date:** [July 8, 2019, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-would-you-plow-your-crop-under/836693/21 "2019-07-08T21:17:35Z")

</div>

> [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](#):
>
> So why couldn’t he have dug up some of the carrots, to use as fuel for his ox? Horses (and other equines) love carrots; cattle & oxen should also.
> 
> This whole thing sounds like a possible **publicity stunt** to me.

One medium carrot weighs 61 grams and has about 25 calories, which translates to 0.39 calories per gram.

One gram of hay also provides about 4 calories.

Sure, you can harvest the carrots, which requires more time and effort than simply plowing, but if you want to feed your oxen cheaply, it makes more sense to let them graze after they pull the plow.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Arkcon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/96bed5/32.png) [@Arkcon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arkcon)\
**Post date:** [July 9, 2019, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-would-you-plow-your-crop-under/836693/22 "2019-07-09T00:38:07Z")

</div>

> [@Kent\_Clark](#):
>
> Anything growing in the soil will take nutrients from the soil, at the very least, water.

Specifically, water. That carrot tap root will grow deep and pull lots of water out. I don’t know what sort of water resources this farmer has, or will have, or won’t have at some point. But the variable is best removed from the equation. Its what a farmer does. What else will he do to pass his time? Neglecting is land is anathema, and in many places, failing to obviously care for your land counts as you giving it up, sez the government.

Sure he may have saved some to feed his animals, made some hay, canned some carrot slaw, doing that with a couple hundred pounds then plowing the rest of a commercial field doesn’t make the narrative, “faux gnus.”

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\
**Post date:** [July 9, 2019, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-would-you-plow-your-crop-under/836693/23 "2019-07-09T00:40:43Z")

</div>

> [@Chronos](#):
>
> Similarly, the most effective means of controlling bean beetles is to plant beans late. Around here, if you wait to plant beans until at least the summer solstice, the beetles will all have died off over the winter,.

Equinox?

Or do they mean “the beetles will all have died off over the spring”?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ccd318/32.png) [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_in_Qatar)\
**Post date:** [July 9, 2019, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-would-you-plow-your-crop-under/836693/24 "2019-07-09T01:09:44Z")

</div>

Thank you all.

[Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-would-you-plow-your-crop-under/836693.md?page=1)