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Central Iowa | I have run over a lot of acres in my farming career with cultivators. They were a planned part of my ridge till operation and were never considered plan B if herbicides failed. I went through cultivators like most farmers go through pickups. There was IH, CIH, Buffalo, Hiniker and B & H. They each had their own imperfections. For me, I found that a combination of disc hillers, 16" sweeps and deep shields provided the best degree of weed control. However, if certain weeds such as waterhemp got too tall they could be resistant to iron as well. This brings home the importance of a good burndown and pre emerge herbicides.
I can understand the reluctance to cultivate in fields with sharp contours, terraces, point rows etc. If I had those kind of fields I would feel the same way. I am in pothole country with gently rolling slopes which don't do well with contouring or terraces. They do well however with row cultivation. Except for a few organic operations there is very little row cultivation done in my area. If cultivation is going to make a comeback I see little evidence of it, herbicide resistance is going to have to get really bad to force a return. A whole generation of younger farmers are going to have learn a whole new way of doing things if it were to happen. The use of RTK, guidance hitch and AC would make the task much more pleasant than that experienced by their grandfathers.
In my area we have been on the dry side the last five years. The use of a cultivation could have proceeded with little rain interruption for more timely effective weed control. This spring for example it was too windy for days on end for post emerge spraying while on the other hand row cultivation could have proceeded without delay.
Edited by cardinal farms 7/8/2025 19:59
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Row Crop Cultivating Poll
