Nearly every acre we farm will get cultivated.  We do it for two purposes.  The first is we want to plant on a ridge next spring and the second is weed control.  Depending on the size of the weed 100% control is possible but they need to be small.  For us it is not a mindless operation.  We are applying 35 gallons of nitrogen and also running implement guidance.  We done 300 acres since noon time yesterday with no wipeouts.  The corn is almost to canopy so there shouldn't be any more weeds coming.

My cultivator is one of the more profitable machines on the farm.  When you consider it is difficult to spray for less than $30/acre (chem and application) the pains of cultivating become pretty easy to tolerate.