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Kettle Moraine, WI | Single sweep high speed cultivator as mentioned above will be very efficient if you have long straight fields maximizing field efficiency. And all field operations, and amplified with the need to follow rows, are faster when machine is in the ground going straight and fast and not waste time turning around on headlands.
First pass cultivation is slow in small crops. Last pass cleaning up slips is the fastest and thus the cheapest.
I figure about $2 an acre pass on parts, fuel around 0.25 gallons (slow is at idle means more time but lower gallons per hour, fast is more gallons per hour but more acres). Look at miles per hour, equipment width, field efficiency, and your implied labor cost to arrive at labor cost per hour. Tractor cost and acres per hour determine that portion of cost.
Unlike herbicide where you can grab the jug you need, you likely will have more than 1 cultivator and some may not get used every year because one or other is better choice for conditions. A single sweep is not always the best and a danish tine is not always the best. So overhead investment is a cost that shares a big influence on cost per acre.
Early weed control, fast emergence crop, and adjustable cultivators are keys to cultivating effectively.
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NON GMO corn and beans
