FARMERS across Scotland have been busy catching up on their spring work schedule. Livestock farmers have been spreading artificial fertilisers, slurry and farmyard manure on their grassland. Others have been rolling silage fields to compact the land and push any stones lying on the surface back into the soil. That helps to protect silage-making machinery like mowers and forage harvesters from damage.

Beef farmers are busy calving cows while low-ground sheep farmers are finishing lambing just as their counterparts in the hills are about to start. There's nothing more satisfying than watching fields and hills fill up with a healthy crop of lambs.

Autumn-sown crops are looking well thanks to the mild winter, with oilseed rape looking particularly well and many fields having produced a sea of yellow flowers in the past couple of weeks.

Arable farmers have also been working flat out recently as spring sowing was well behind normal due to mixed weather, but the recent drier spell has allowed a major catch-up with planting seeds and potatoes.

The main spring-sown crop in Scotland is barley, with most of that grown in the west used for animal feed, while the bulk of the crop in the east is destined for malting and is the backbone of the Scottish whisky industry.

Most farmers try to avoid ploughing wet land to avoid damaging the soil through compaction and creating a plough pan. That's where the smearing action of the ploughshares cutting through wet soil forms an impervious layer about 250mm below ground, particularly in heavy clay soils. Plough-pans hinder drainage and create a barrier that roots find hard to penetrate. Land that has a plough-pan tends to waterlog easily, and in dry weather grows yellow, stunted crops and grass. So it is always best to wait till the land dries before ploughing - and that's why you often see farmers ploughing through the night with their lights on.

Ploughing is a good way of burying surface trash and aerating the land, but it was also partly responsible for the dust bowls of the American and Canadian prairies during the 1930s. Extensive deep ploughing of the virgin top soil of the Great Plains during the previous decade displaced the native, deep-rooted grasses that trapped soil and moisture during periods of drought and high winds.

On a trip to Argentina, one farmer told me that the worst thing Europeans brought with them to his country was the plough.

Nowadays, the heavy tractors that pull modern multi-furrow ploughs and subsequent cultivation equipment compact the land and damage soil structure, as well as consuming a lot of fuel. A compacted soil has a higher risk of erosion as it is less porous, meaning it is less able to absorb water and resist surface run-off. Erosion removes soil, nutrients and pesticides from the field and potentially to rivers.

There has been a big move away from ploughing in recent years in favour of minimal cultivation techniques that involve sowing the seed into a shallow seed-bed, to "no-till" systems where the seeds are directly drilled into the land - mimicking nature.

In an arable rotation, reduced cultivation techniques can be a good practice to help maintain soil organic matter, especially in the soil tilth.

Soil organic matter is made up of plant and animal matter which release nutrients into the soil as they decompose. This improves the porosity, workability, fertility and biota (animal and plant life) of soils, as well as helping to maintain good structure. Where there are good levels of organic matter, the risk of capping, slumping and erosion can be reduced.

Despite the arguments against the plough, it is still a very useful implement if used properly.

A good ploughman makes furrows as straight as an arrow fired from a bow. I was never that much of a ploughman and my father used to say that my furrows were as crooked as a dog's hind leg.

Despite my obvious lack of skill, I have to confess that I enjoyed ploughing as I listened to Radio 2 and watched the seagulls and crows feast on the worms and grubs exposed by the freshly-upturned furrows. It's also incredibly satisfying to look back at the ploughed land as you leave the field at the end of the day.

So many of us have little to show for a long, hard day's work, but a newly ploughed field can be visible for all to see and admire.