We rarely cultivate our soil deeply, see the article “Cultivating Deeply.” The reason is we do not want to disturb the soil life below. The roots of the cover crops open up the soil at deep. Alfalfa in particular has deep roots. When the sheep or the chicken eat the tops of the plant to the ground, we cultivate the top four or five inches to make a tilth the root below that leave tunnels for crop roots to harvest nutrients. This is why, I believe, everything tastes so good.
Roberto is in charge of the Sundance cultivator which we bought in 1994. It is serious piece of equipment, and heavy at 3,500 lbs. Even so it peels the beds apart and rebuilds them into ridges. It has tines which run deeper in the path of the wheels of the tractor which help it stay straight. After this we roll the ridges to break up any clods then irrigate.
This is repeated a couple of times over two weeks. The final pass is with the bed shaper into which we plant the next crop.