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North Central Illinois | You're right about the rows, though a rotary hoe and a well tuned cultivator take out most of them. I agree that band spray and cultivate has merit as a system.
I'm 100% organic management. If you're gonna go zero herbicide go ahead and get the certification and capture the premium price.
As for costs, corn I rotary hoe 1-2 times typically and soybeans 3-4 times. Cultivate twice usually. Sometimes run a tine weeder once or twice.
I figure it costs me $15/acre per pass. That's fuel, wear, and operator labor.
I'd say that my crops have more weeds than average in my area, but the last few years I don't have to drive far to see GMO fields with a similar number of weeds (though they're mostly water hemp whereas I have more biodiversity. | |
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NON GMO corn and beans
