Is Cultivating Corn/Beans Actually Economical Compared t

Title says it all. What's your guys opinions I'd like to hoe my row crops but with a full time construction job my time is very limited. I dont run massive amounts of acreage but my main ? Is would it be beneficial to hoe my crops versus hiring someone to spray? What's your guys thoughts. Obviously everyone's situation is different but just looking for opinions. My seed supplier gives me a good deal to spray my crops but my average feilds are around 20 acres and under and since he runs couple 1000 acres he always tells me there ain't any money in the small feilds. They are all close to me and that's why I rent them cuz BTO's dont want them.

One pass with a residual herbicide...Maybe 10 bucks per acre, plus 10 to 20 for the
product, 95 percent clean. Hoeing or cultivating or scuffling....15 per acre
minimum, at least 2 passes, more crop damage and more weed escapes, net result
lower yields...Unless you are marketing organic crops, chemical control is
generally more cost effective. That's my experience.

Ben

Looking back, in my back yard, row crop cultivating caused terrible erosion over the years....

We have very rolling ground here, but the hills are vert short. On a typical 1200 foot field I go through 3-5 hills. Not terribly steep, but never level either.

We can work the ground rough with a plow or chisel, and the water never gets moving fast enough to move much dirt.

But our rainy season is May and June, just when you cultivate 3 times. Fine tillage, up and down the hills making grooves and leaving the dirt worked very fine.

All that fine dirt would wash down every little hill and puddle the sediment in the bottoms. Corn and beans would be washed half out on the hills and need to reroofed as
best it could, in the bottoms the young plants were half covered in dirt had to grow out of it.

Dont see that any more with spraying. We still do full tillage here, chisel in fall and field cultivate before planting, but way less erosion.

So just on that, it would be hard to go back to cultivating.

Then you mention small fields. That often also means not square. Cultivators are not happy with irregular shapes.either you leave weeds or drive through crop to get the odd shaped edges. Going to be more waste with a cultivator.

Ben and Paul have about covered it. My own 2 cents worth, the first year, you might be OK if you've had good weed control by
spraying. You won't get all the weeds though, and every weed that escapes and goes to seed, you'll have from 100 to 1000 weeds
next year, and it'll grow exponentially. Before we started spraying, the whole month of June and first half of July, if we
weren't haying, we were cultivating. When the weed pressure starts to grow because you've put so many weed seeds in your seed
bank, figure on running through at least four times a year. The first time, maybe two, you'll be barely creeping with the
shields on so you don't cover the crop, second time, with the shields raised a little so some dirt slides under. Third time
through or so, you can go a little faster, but not much, without the shields, moving a little dirt in to the row. Last pass when
the corn is knee high, you can turn the shovels in, go like the devil and roll the dirt up in the row trying to bury the weeds
in the rows, but by then, they'll be too tall to bury and they'll go to seed. A rotary hoe might eliminate the first trip
through with the cultivator and the shields, but that's another piece of equipment.

Farming ain't easy, or a game. If you don't want to have to pay a custom applicator, you're best bet is to buy a sprayer and
either grow Roundup Ready or get certified so you can use something else that'll work. That's just the way it is.

If your time is limited due to off farm job, you have answered your own question.Poorly timed weed control of any sort is a recipe
for failure. If it was me and I was considering just cultivating I would start by cultivating one field and have the rest sprayed
and see what you think in the fall. Unless you are trying to go organic you will find time and fuel costs will favor spraying.

Liberty Link is a better herbicide for now. It too will build resistance, but for now....

The way we used to grow more or less organically but didnt know that was a thing, was to work the ground 3 times before planting, harrow it before or during it sprouted, and then row cultivate it 3 times.

Each time you worked the ground you waited a few days to several days for a weed flush to sprout, and work down again.

That was all well and good, but it meant you planted in May and June, instead of April and May. Here in Minnesota we have a short summer, that is wasting some growing season, means less yield.

Now a days we go plant corn with frost in the ground in small spots if its dry enough, no weeds up yet, never mind 3 flushes of weeds....

So the efficiency of using sunlight, water, and heat to grow a crop some of that gets wasted on killing weeds, and lower yields result.

Im not against organic and certainly not against those who do so, but Im bothered a little by their claims to being more sustainable because of this sort of thing.

So we were able to control broadleaves pretty good with the multiple spring tillage passes and weed flushes, but the perennials and the grasses were very difficult to control. Canadian thistle, quack grass, foxtails. Ugh. Bad memories.

Kind of funny, due to some bad timing on my part and unbelievable rains the past 5 years Im struggling with broadleaves now, the grasses are under control with the herbicides...... Im sure Kowfarmer can laugh at my fields as he drives by... so the new ways isnt perfect either.

Paul

Same as what the other guys said. Erosion is terrible when you cultivate unless the field is flat as a pancake. Cultivating it black without chemicals makes us feel good but in the end cultivating is a loser in several ways.

One of the arguments for no till is the savings on machinery costs and fuel costs yet every no till farmer around here has one or more late model to
new 600 HP tractors and all the tillage tools to go with them. Doesn't make too much sense to me. I'm such a small time operator (semi-retired)
that I just conventional farm my acreage but do have some commercial spraying done, usually one application of pre- or post emergence on the milo,
and one application in the spring on the wheat. Most farmers who are mostly conventional still do some no till planting, especially when double
cropping.