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The Southern region Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SSARE) program is seeking nominations for its Sustainable Agriculture Leadership Program for summer 2023. This program provides sponsorship funds (up to $3,000) to support sustainable agriculture education and training activities throughout the Southern region. The sponsorship funds education and training activities to help farmers, particularly historically underserved farmers/ranchers, further sustainable ag practices. Historically underserved farmers and ranchers, farmer groups, and non-governmental organizations that serve those audiences within the Southern region are invited to apply by January 9, 2023.

National Public Radio reports that researchers have developed a perennial rice that thousands of farmers in China are beginning to grow. The perennial rice requires much less labor to grow than conventional rice does, and its long-lived roots could have important environmental benefits in terms of reduced erosion, drought tolerance, and, potentially, carbon sequestration. The rice has been on the market in China for several years, and farmer interest in it has grown rapidly, with 38,000 acres of the crop planted last year. The rice plant produces for about four years before needing to be replaced.

USDA launched a new online Loan Assistance Tool to help farmers and ranchers better navigate the farm loan application process. The uniform application process will help to ensure all farm loan applicants receive equal support and have a consistent customer experience with USDA’s Farm Service Agency (FSA), regardless of their individual circumstances. USDA experiences a high rate of incomplete or withdrawn applications, particularly among underserved customers, due in part to a challenging and lengthy paper-based application process. USDA says the new Loan Assistance Tool is available 24/7 and gives customers an online step-by-step guide that supplements the support they receive when working in person with a USDA employee, providing materials that may help an applicant prepare their loan application in one tool. Farmers can access the Loan Assistance Tool by visiting farmers.gov/farm-loan-assistance-tool.

USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) “No-Till November” campaign encourages farmers to “keep the stubble” on their harvested crops fields. The campaign is designed to improve soil health, increasing soil biological activity and preventing erosion. Resource materials, including beards to use in no-till selfies, are available online from NRCS.
Related ATTRA publication: Richter No-Till Case Study: Using Cover Crop Cocktails in a Forage-Based Crop System

A study published in Agronomy Journal by scientists at the University of Tennessee evaluated five warm-season grasses as forage for beef cattle. All of the warm-season grasses prevented problems with fescue toxicity. The three native grasses, eastern gamagrass, switchgrass, and a mix of big bluestem and indiangrass, were the most economically efficient, with switchgrass producing the greatest productivity and returns for grazing heifers. Researchers will next explore how warm-season and cool-season forages can best work together in an annual grazing cycle.

European research published in the Vadose Zone Journal, a publication of the Soil Science Society of America, shows that large quantities of microplastics in soil impact how water flows through that soil. Although it is not likely that an entire field will contain enough microplastics to impact water flow, this study showed that microplastics can concentrate in some areas, or depths of soil, and could eventually impact the root architecture of plants. “Spots with higher levels of microplastics in the top layer of soils could impact water availability for shallow rooting plants and, down the line, also nutrient availability,” according to author Andreas Cramer. Cramer added that, in the worst-case scenario, a dry “dead zone” could develop in the soil, inhibiting decomposition of organic matter. Both agricultural film plastics and airborne microplastics contribute to the accumulation of plastics in agricultural soils over time.

USDA announced the expansion of the Rural Partners Network (RPN) to 17 communities in four more states and Puerto Rico. The Rural Partners Network launched in April 2022 in 14 communities in Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, New Mexico and Native American communities in Arizona. This expansion will add communities in Alaska, Nevada, West Virginia and Puerto Rico. RPN helps establish community networks in rural areas where local leaders and residents collaborate with civic and business organizations, nonprofits, service providers, development agencies and others to create new opportunities and build on the diversity of a region’s population and perspectives. Through the program, full-time federal staff members are assigned to provide technical assistance tailored to the community’s unique needs and objectives. These federal staff members help rural communities navigate federal programs, build relationships and identify community-driven solutions, and develop successful applications for funding.

USDA announced the 21 grant projects that will receive $73 million through the first round of the Meat and Poultry Processing Expansion Program (MPPEP). USDA also announced $75 million for eight projects through the Meat and Poultry Intermediary Lending Program, as well as more than $75 million for four meat and poultry-related projects through the Food Supply Chain Guaranteed Loan program. MPPEP was designed to support capacity expansion projects in concert with other private and public finance tools. This announcement was for the first round of funding made available through Phase I of MPEPP. Additional announcements are expected in the coming weeks. USDA will also soon begin taking applications for a new phase to deploy an additional $225 million.

This webinar was recorded on January 20, 2015. Watch it on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XwyDS2mv8Iw

In this webinar, Jan-Hendrik Cropp will describe how to create organic cropping systems using diverse living and/or dead mulches, along with rotational conservation tillage to increase soil health. While the webinar will focus on one production system from an organic farm in Germany, the principles can be applied to a wide variety of agricultural operations. The presenter recently returned to Germany from a 3-month research trip across the US and Canada, where he met many innovators in organic no-till and reduced tillage. He will refer to regional examples and experiences from his travels in the webinar.

Slides from the webinar as a pdf handout

For a list of the cover crop species mentioned in this presentation, see this blog post by Natalie Lounsbury (scroll down to the end)

Jan-Hendrik Cropp is a farmer pioneering organic no-till and minimal tillage systems, a consultant on soil fertility, and a freelance journalist living in Germany. He studied organic agricultural science, and most recently worked on a 12-acre vegetable farm.

This is an eOrganic article and was reviewed for compliance with National Organic Program regulations by members of the eOrganic community. Always check with your organic certification agency before adopting new practices or using new materials. For more information, refer to eOrganic's articles on organic certification.

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This webinar was recorded on January 27, 2015. Watch it on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kRUWcdSZlpg

As consumer interest in locally/regionally grown heritage and ancient wheat has grown, so too has the need for identification of high-performing varieties and management practices best suited to produce high-quality grain. Team members of the NIFA OREI-funded Value-added Grains for Local and Regional Food Systems project will present information derived from three years of experimentation at multiple sites on varietal performance, including yield potential, standability, disease tolerance, and grain quality, and growing practices, including planting rate and nitrogen fertility application. Farmer experience with and recommendations on growing these crops will also be featured.

SLIDES FROM THE WEBINAR AS A PDF HANDOUT

Steve Zwinger, North Dakota State University Carrington Research Extension Center, is part of the agronomy team working with the project. Steve's research has focused on crop performance and management practices, along with varietal evaluation. He has conducted research with ancient over multiple years and environments, including University research plots and in certified organic farmers fields.

Michael Davis is an agronomist with the Cornell University Agricultural Experiment Station who has been conducting small grain trials on certified organic fields for the past 17 years.

This is an eOrganic article and was reviewed for compliance with National Organic Program regulations by members of the eOrganic community. Always check with your organic certification agency before adopting new practices or using new materials. For more information, refer to eOrganic's articles on organic certification.

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This webinar was recorded on February 10, 2015. Watch it on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vY4WzlwfpbQ

The presenters will discuss what worked and what did not work on five long-term organic farms. They will also explore the question of how much diversity is enough and how to manage on-farm biological control organism habitat.

Slides from the webinar as a pdf handout

Insect Pest Suppression Table

Helen Atthowe has been farming on her own and consulting for other organic vegetable and fruit farms for 25 years. She was a horticulture extension agent for 15 years and owned and operated Biodesign Farm (30 acre diverse organic fruit and vegetable farm) in western Montana for 17 years. She spent 6 months as consulting vegetable grower for a 2000 acre organic vegetable and fruit farm in northern Colorado with a 5000 member CSA. She now co-owns Woodleaf Farm in northern California.

Carl Rosato started Woodleaf Farm in northern California in 1980. He is also an organic soil management consultant. Woodleaf Farm (26 acres of diverse organic fruit and vegetable production) is an organic pioneer: the 9th farm to be certified organic by CCOF in 1982. Carl has been doing organic disease and insect management research on his farm since he received his first OFRF grant in 1992, has taught organic farming at local colleges in California, and in 2012 received the Eco-farm 'Steward of Sustainable Agriculture" award.

This is an eOrganic article and was reviewed for compliance with National Organic Program regulations by members of the eOrganic community. Always check with your organic certification agency before adopting new practices or using new materials. For more information, refer to eOrganic's articles on organic certification.

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The webinar was recorded on March 10, 2015. Watch it on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lUQLgWBQA3M

The webinar will cover the importance of native bee pollinators in organic farming systems, particularly diversified systems that produce many crops per year. We will first discuss the diversity of native bees in farming systems, and the roles they may play in supplementing (or replacing) honey bees for pollination services. Our webinar will also describe an ongoing research project in western Washington on native bee pollinators. 

Slides from the webinar as a pdf handout

David Crowder is an assistant professor of Entomology at Washington State University. His research focuses on insect ecology and the role of sustainable agriculture on insect communities

Elias Bloom in a PhD student in Entomology in the lab of Dr. David Crowder and Washington State University. His research focuses on the biology and ecology of native bee pollinators in diversified organic farming systems.

This is an eOrganic article and was reviewed for compliance with National Organic Program regulations by members of the eOrganic community. Always check with your organic certification agency before adopting new practices or using new materials. For more information, refer to eOrganic's articles on organic certification.

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This webinar was recorded on March 17, 2015. Watch it on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lon_gSTiJco

In 2015, apples and pears produced organically under the USDA National Organic Program standard must utilize non-antibiotic materials in spray programs for fire blight suppression. Effective non-anrtiobiotic control programs will be presented with particular emphasis on integrated sequencing of materials. Interactions among non-antibiotic materials and their potential to cause russeting on developing fruits will be addressed.

SLIDES FROM THE WEBINAR AS A PDF HANDOUT

Ken Johnson is Professor of Plant Pathology at Oregon State University, Corvallis.
Rachel Elkins is a University of California Cooperative Extension Farm Advisor and is located in Lake County (Lakeport), CA.
Tim Smith is a Washington State University Cooperative Extension Area Agent and is located in Chelan County (Wenatchee), WA.

This group has been involved with fire blight management for over 20 years.

Find all upcoming and archived eOrganic webinars at http://www.extension.org/pages/25242

This is an eOrganic article and was reviewed for compliance with National Organic Program regulations by members of the eOrganic community. Always check with your organic certification agency before adopting new practices or using new materials. For more information, refer to eOrganic's articles on organic certification.

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This webinar was recorded on March 25, 2015. Watch it on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rd7dgoSL2lk

The world is buzzing with talk about improved tastes and nutritional profiles in products made from ancient wheats like einkorn, emmer, and spelt, and from heritage types of bread wheat like Red Fife. Which nutrients are higher in which varieties of these different wheat species? How does the flour cook up and how does the bread taste? How does one actually evaluate these characteristics in an unbiased way? Join us for a discussion of the results of baking and sensory testing of a number of kinds of wheat and a nutritional analysis of 100 kinds of einkorn

Lisa Kissing Kucek is a graduate student at Cornell University. She collaborates with organic farmers to breed new genotypes of wheat, spelt, emmer, and einkorn for the Northeast United States. 

Abdullah Jaradat, Supervisory agronomist and research leader working for the Agricultural Research Service in Morris, Minnesota. A wheat geneticist specialized in hulled wheat species and wheat landraces of the Fertile Crescent.

Julie Dawson of the University of Wisconsin conducts research and extension to support urban and regional food systems, with an emphasis on small scale diversified farms, market gardens and community gardens.

This is an eOrganic article and was reviewed for compliance with National Organic Program regulations by members of the eOrganic community. Always check with your organic certification agency before adopting new practices or using new materials. For more information, refer to eOrganic's articles on organic certification.

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This webinar was recorded on April 7, 2015. Watch it on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJApXcTG2Zs

Agroecology has a proven track record of assessing the principles underpinning sustainable farming. Yet, approaches to utilizing research-based information to develop and deliver extension programs that allow innovative agricultural producers to make informed management decision are still lacking. In this webinar, we will explore pedagogical principles that Extension agents and agricultural educators can take advantage of when developing context-dependent outreach and educational programs for organic and sustainable farmers.

Slides from the webinar as a PDF handout

About the Presenters

Bruna Irene Grimberg is an Associate Research Professor dedicated to Science Outreach and Education at Montana State University. Bruna’s Physics and Education backgrounds allowed her to conduct research, develop and implement K-12 science teacher professional development in rural and Native American reservations, and teach university level courses in physics and science education. Her research explores how people learn science in different contexts and cultural settings aiming to increase science literacy.

Fabian Menalled is a Professor of Weed Ecology and Management at Montana State University. Fabian’s research and extension interests relate to the assessment of agroecological principles that relate to the development of sustainable farming practices.

Mary Burrows is an Associate Professor and Extension Plant Pathologist at Montana State University. Her research and extension programs address problems faced by the growers of Montana including integrated management of disease problems in field crops including cereals and pulses (peas, lentils, chickpeas). She directs the state diagnostic laboratory, a regional pulse crop diagnostic laboratory, and the state IPM program.

This is an eOrganic article and was reviewed for compliance with National Organic Program regulations by members of the eOrganic community. Always check with your organic certification agency before adopting new practices or using new materials. For more information, refer to eOrganic's articles on organic certification.

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This is a Vegetable Farmers and their Weed Control Machines video clip.

Watch the video clip on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y_QDsn-3Zg4

John Arena Jr., Arena Farms. Concord, MA.

This tractor is set up with cultivating disks for doing along the edges of plastic without the use of herbicides and very minimal hand weeding. This is set up with a straight tooth right here, it’s at a slight angle to get underneath the black plastic and also kind of lifts it up a little bit so any weeds that are germinating or small weeds that are there really get disturbed by that. Followed by a second round cultivating disk which again throws dirt out and disturbs the weeds. And the last disk here returns the soil back onto the plastic edge where this first one had taken it off a little bit.

All these tools here are simple cultivating tools; a straight tooth, it does have a spring if you have rocky fields; the tractor is a Super C Farmall from International Harvester. It’s a very simple operation.

We generally use this machine when weeds are just starting to germinate. That’s the best time to go in with that slight disruption of the ground. The small weeds just die instantly. If you do get behind however and weeds start to germinate and they get even up to six; we’ve even used this up to twelve inches in height. Because the round disks are there you get no clog up like you normally get on all straight teeth. So it’s great if you get in early and you happen to not get in early it’ll still do a great job. The only difference is you’d have to do weeds six to twelve inches in height you’d have to do your rows about six times to get a complete clean area whereas if you get in at the right time usually twice a year is about all that needs to be done. This particular field has been done twice.

What offers us also with this unit is we can put down fertilizer at the same time that we’re cultivating. So it works out that we’re getting a lot of things done with one pass.

This cultivation system also works great on crabgrass; it gets down below the root system, lifts it out and does kill it. The purslane also which generally is a problem weed for us, it does pull the weed out and if you do it on a hot enough day it generally will die before it has a chance to re-root itself in.

This video project was funded in part by the Northeast Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program (USDA).

This is an eOrganic article and was reviewed for compliance with National Organic Program regulations by members of the eOrganic community. Always check with your organic certification agency before adopting new practices or using new materials. For more information, refer to eOrganic's articles on organic certification.

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This is a Vegetable Farmers and their Weed Control Machines video clip.

Watch the video clip on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T6_qz1pXiEs

Bob Gray, Four Corners Farm. Newbury, VT.

This cultivation equipment here is called a Buddingh In-row Weeder. The 'in-row' comes from the fact that it literally will weed around the plant. You can see my fingers here. The rubber fingers go like this around the plant and scrub the weeds out. And there’s little metal prongs on the bottom of the finger wheel that spins the fingers. On transplanted plants like strawberry or broccoli and even fast growing plants like beans it does a beautiful job. Onions in a single row, anything that can take a little bit of scrubbing without being pulled out.

Today this is just about the right timing to cultivate. The weeds are just coming through. This thing here will just take them and actually flick them out of the ground. If you let them get too big it won’t work. It has to be done when the weeds are an inch or less in height. Once you get past that stage then you get screwed up. We love it and it does an incredible job. It’s like getting fifteen people hoeing all at once and you’re just doing all the work yourself.

It’s mounted on an Allis Chalmers G tractor. They don’t make them anymore. They were made in the forties and early fifties. A little light weight tractor with the motor in the rear and you can see perfectly what you are doing. It turns on a dime.

For the actual adjustment on this Buddingh weeder, it does all kinds of things. It goes in and out, it goes forward and back, these rear things can be turned around so they’ll throw dirt in toward the plant or reversed so they’ll throw dirt away from the plant. It’s a very versatile piece of equipment.

One of the drawbacks is you can see right here it doesn’t like wet soil, but you shouldn’t be cultivating in the rain anyway, because the dirt will pack up underneath. You have to get off as well and bang on it to shake the dirt off so it will do what it is supposed to do. But in dry soil, sandy soil, it will work in stones as long as there are not too many of them.

Generally with this machine you go fairly slow, maybe two to three miles per hour, depending on the crop and how strong it is.

So we always have something in the front weeding around the plant and something in the back covering the wheel tracks. But it’s more than that. With the other tractors that have the Lillistons on them, the Lilliston can actually do more work than just covering the wheel tracks. The front cultivator, whatever it may be, a sweep or a shovel or fingers like, this works around the plant and the Lilliston can come around and finish up or level out or throw more dirt or hill depending on what you want to do. So you’re always trying to figure out what you want to do and put a piece of equipment that will do the most good.

This video project was funded in part by the Northeast Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program (USDA)

This is an eOrganic article and was reviewed for compliance with National Organic Program regulations by members of the eOrganic community. Always check with your organic certification agency before adopting new practices or using new materials. For more information, refer to eOrganic's articles on organic certification.

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This is a Vegetable Farmers and their Weed Control Machines video clip.

Watch the video clip on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8INi3UIjObg

Bob Gray, Four Corners Farm. Newbury, V

I want to talk about these cultivator sweeps and what they do but as I look here I want to remind you of something very important. You should never let your cultivator sweeps rust, and I always do because I seem to get too busy to clean them up. They’ll rust literally over night because of the acidity of the soil or something. Once they rust the dirt doesn’t slide smoothly over the cultivator, it boils over, so it doesn’t do nearly as nice a job of cultivating. You really want to slice just under the ground with a cultivator, an inch or half inch deep. Once you get dirt sticking to it, it begins to boil and roll and doesn’t do nearly as nice a job. That’s just because it rusted. It gets sticky. By rights they should be cleaned off every time you get through and oiled. And if you have rust on there it should be sanded until they’re really smooth. We have a problem where we don’t cultivate enough; we don’t have enough acreage at one time so that they get smoothed up. If you’re cultivating ten acres then by that time they’ll finally get all shiny and smooth. But here the rust lasts from one time to another.

We try to set these cultivator shanks, sweeps they’re called, so that they’ll throw dirt underneath the plant and bury up any weeds. Lots of times my dad used to say there are two ways to kill a weed, you know, you can cut it off or you can bury it up. I think sometimes burying up a weed is just as successful as actually digging it up. When you dig it up it still has a root. When you cover it up you smother it and it’s just not going to grow. So all you want to do is throw dirt over the weeds with your cultivator sweeps like this and bury them up. If you get them when they’re an inch or so tall it works very very well. So you can move these in or out so they do just what you want them to do.

Speed is important. The Lilliston likes to go fast, that’s the cultivator in the rear, and if you can go fast and not hit the plants with these why then it will work even better because it will throw the dirt more.

This video project was funded in part by the Northeast Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program (USDA).

This is an eOrganic article and was reviewed for compliance with National Organic Program regulations by members of the eOrganic community. Always check with your organic certification agency before adopting new practices or using new materials. For more information, refer to eOrganic's articles on organic certification.

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This is a Vegetable Farmers and their Weed Control Machines video clip.

Watch the video clip on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P3U2bEXISHk

Bob Gray, Four Corners Farm. Newbury, VT

This piece of equipment here is a Lilliston Rolling Tine Cultivator and it’s a very versatile tillage tool because it adjusts so many ways and will do so many things. You can adjust it this way, like you want to hill potatoes. You can crank it up pretty steep and it will throw dirt up. You can adjust it back and forth this way for more action. If you want it to dig more and move more dirt then you turn this backwards. You can slide it this way to get it closer to the plants or further away from the plants. We like it a lot and use it on many many crops. Right here on broccoli we use it to actually throw dirt underneath the plant to bury weeds. We have the front sweeps on which will move the dirt under the plant and this will actually throw dirt behind and throw it over the plant. And if you watch your timing, if the weeds aren’t too big, you can keep this crop absolutely clean. I think I can get ninety nine percent of the weeds in this crop every time as long as I’m there when I’m supposed to be there.

This video project was funded in part by the Northeast Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program (USDA).

This is an eOrganic article and was reviewed for compliance with National Organic Program regulations by members of the eOrganic community. Always check with your organic certification agency before adopting new practices or using new materials. For more information, refer to eOrganic's articles on organic certification.

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This is a Vegetable Farmers and their Weed Control Machines video clip.

Watch the video clip on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wgHsWPZ5rx0

Bob Gray, Four Corners Farm. Newbury, VT

This machine we are using now is something we modified from a, well we got it from Canada, it’s a Canadian field cultivator they call it and we use it basically just for week control. We had to modify it from a larger size; actually these were wings that came from a fourteen foot model or something. Someone had sold the eight foot center portion and these are the outside wings - we had to weld it together and made it so it would fit between the rows of plastic.

When we lay down our plastic we always try to put our plastic just a tractor width or a little more apart. We use a lot of space between our plastic mainly just for weed control because we found when we had to do it by hand with a hoe or a hand push cultivator it just never got done. But if we can jump on a tractor we could easily do three, four, five acres in an afternoon or do ten lengths of plastic in a half an hour. And the advantage of this field cultivator over a tiller, we used to take the tiller and crank it up so it was really shallow and just cut the top two inches of the soil, it worked very well but it was slow. The beauty of this piece of equipment here is that you can adjust the depth and so we can use it as a primary tillage tool to loosen the soil and go six to eight inches deep if that’s what we want to do but when we’re controlling weeds we just want to skim the surface of the soil, the top two inches. And so with this adjusting wheel right here we can raise these tines up or down so they just barely skim because we don’t want to bring up more soil, we want to just sterilize the soil, the top two inches of soil and kill those weeds that are in that zone. So this is just simply a spring loaded or spring shank cultivator tooth, it vibrates, and creates a little more tillage action.

The thing I like the best is this reel in the back in that once you’ve broken the soil up there’s some clods of dirt just like this, that some weeds are actually growing in and by the time it gets through this thing rolling over it, it breaks it apart and exposes the root and literally hangs the weed up to dry and as you can see some of them hanging on the basket there. That’s important that you get the soil off the bare root of the small weed, and it’ll flip it over and lay it on top of the ground where the sun can bake it and kill it.

We’ve been trying to figure out a system for the edge of the plastic for as many years as we’ve used plastic. This is coming closer to what we want all the time. We used to use shovels, sweeps they call them, off the cultivator, but that would either go above the plastic and just skim along and not kill the weeds or go below the plastic and loosen it up and not kill the weeds either. We find with this we can run right over the top of the plastic and in fact sometimes I think it even stretches the plastic tighter and makes the plastic better because it will roll over the top and push little holes in it and punch it down further in the soil. So this is the zone, if you understand, on the edge of the plastic where the plastic curls down under where you secure it to the soil - there’s always a weed problem. Even with a hoe you end up tearing the plastic whereas this thing seems to go over and flick the weeds off, if they’re small. As I said, again these weeds are too big, we had a problem here and we missed them the first time through. Under ideal conditions if you time it right it works quite well.

This piece of equipment here actually came off a Lilliston Cultivator, some of your larger Lilliston setups have what they call an inner wheel, it’s a smaller spider wheel it runs very close to the plant. We just took it and modified it with the same hookup to this cultivator set up here. We’ve got an adjustment here so you can swivel it at an angle, the more angle you get the more action you get. We think it works pretty well.

I’ve got some weeds here in front of me and the time to get weeds is before you see them or just when they’re an inch or less tall because the root system isn’t very strong. By just flicking the dirt we can roll the soil over and get the weed exposed to the surface where it will die in a half an hour or less in the sun. Take a larger weed here, which is one we missed from the last cultivation. This weed has so much reserve of moisture and nutrients in the stalk itself that it will sacrifice that. That weed right there will not die in an hour in the sun, it may not die out all day in the sun. So you’ve missed it, once they get this big you’re in real trouble. It means hand work. So timing is everything. We always have problems, it rains four days in row and it’s warm and you can’t cultivate anyway, then the weeds get away from you.

I guess that leads me to another point, we have lots of cultivators and lots of tractors and I think you can almost never have too many. I like to have each piece of cultivation equipment on each tractor so I don’t have to stop and adjust and mount up because sometimes you don’t have the time to do that. It would be nice just to be able to jump from one tractor onto another one. It’s kind of extravagant but you can usually find a used tractor that if you don’t use it too heavily it will last for years. Just mount a certain piece of equipment on that tractor and get it set up perfectly and leave it.

This video project was funded in part by the Northeast Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program (USDA).

This is an eOrganic article and was reviewed for compliance with National Organic Program regulations by members of the eOrganic community. Always check with your organic certification agency before adopting new practices or using new materials. For more information, refer to eOrganic's articles on organic certification.

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