Mechanical Weed Control

05/07/20 • 50 min

We recorded today’s episode in March at the 2020 Prairie Organics Conference in Brandon Manitoba.

Scott gets into the weeds with Sam Hitchcock Tilton as they discuss ways to control weeds at all stages of their life cycle throughout the growing season.

Sponsor

Thanks to Regen Ag Solutions for helping to sponsor this episode. If you’re thinking about trying out some of the machines Sam and Scott were talking about, check out their website at https://regenagsolutions.ca/ or give them a call on 1-204-999-1232.

Their farming solutions aim to help farmers achieve balance and synergy between plants and soil. They provide their clients with the best products to develop soil nutrition, increase yields and promote long-term sustainability.

https://regenagsolutions.ca/

https://twitter.com/RegenAgSolutio1

Resources

Dalhousie University has put together some great resources from harrowing to robotic weed control to help you decide what will work best for your farm.

https://www.dal.ca/faculty/agriculture/oacc/en-home/resources/pest-management/weed-management/mechanical-control.html

Manitoba Agriculture has also summarized some of the issues with weed control in organic cropping systems here: https://www.gov.mb.ca/agriculture/crops/weeds/weed-management-in-organic-crop-systems.html

And don’t forget to check out the resources on Pivot and Grow!

https://www.pivotandgrow.com/resources/production/managing-weeds/

Guest bio for Sam Sam Hitchcock Tilton

Sam Hitchcock Tilton is a Horticulture Instructor at Lakeshore Technical College, just North of Sheboygan, Wisconsin. He has a background in vegetable farming and earned a Master’s degree in Horticulture from Michigan State University, where he studied and conducted research on precision weeding tools. Sam was the Midwest Sales Representative for KULT-Kress precision cultivation tools. For this work he designed weeding machines for all types of crops, developed new tools, and traveled through Europe and the US visiting farms. He writes for Vegetable Grower’s News and Growing for Market, and is the organizer of the annual Midwest Mechanical Weed Control Field Day – the nation’s premier event for weeding tool demonstrations.

We recorded today’s episode in March at the 2020 Prairie Organics Conference in Brandon Manitoba.

Scott gets into the weeds with Sam Hitchcock Tilton as they discuss ways to control weeds at all stages of their life cycle throughout the growing season.

Sponsor

https://regenagsolutions.ca/

https://twitter.com/RegenAgSolutio1

Resources

Dalhousie University has put together some great resources from harrowing to robotic weed control to help you decide what will work best for your farm.

https://www.dal.ca/faculty/agriculture/oacc/en-home/resources/pest-management/weed-management/mechanical-control.html

And don’t forget to check out the resources on Pivot and Grow!

https://www.pivotandgrow.com/resources/production/managing-weeds/

Guest bio for Sam Sam Hitchcock Tilton

Previous Episode

Cover Crops

Our host, Scott Beaton, chats with Kevin Elmy from Cover Crops Canada about .....wait for it....cover crops.

They talk about why we should all be growing them in the first place and then get into some of the nitty gritty details about some timing issues, how to plan a cover crop mix and how cover crops actually work to improve your soil aggregates and water infiltration.

Thanks to Imperial Seed for helping to sponsor this episode. If you’re thinking about growing a cover crop this year, check out their website at https://imperialseed.com/ or call one of their experts for some help in deciding what would work best for you!

Sponsor

Imperial Seed Ltd. is an accredited seed processing facility focused on the multiplication and processing of proprietary forage and turf seed. Seed production is facilitated through a network of seed growers throughout Western Canada. Growers have at their disposal almost 60 years of cumulative field experience with our staff. This provides both new and experienced growers with an extensive resource related to their seed production.

https://imperialseed.com/

https://twitter.com/ImperialSeed

Guest bio for Kevin Elmy

I was raised on a seed farm near Saltcoats, SK. I moved back in 1999 after various jobs after convocation from the University of Saskatchewan. The land I bought was baled and burned for 50 years so needed reviving. So we changed our management to included forages, corn grazing, winter cereals, reduced tillage, and the use of cover crops. We got to where we have not added synthetic nitrogen for 13 years, reduced our use of herbicides, eliminated seed treatments, fungicides and insecticides, and now eliminated the rest of our synthetic fertilizer applications. Our soil are now alive.

Resources

Check out Kevin’s cover crop assessment sheet and more info about cover crops at

https://covercrops.ca/

And https://imperialseed.com/

Haven’t filled out Callum’s survey in 2019 yet?

Click here to fill it out.

Or follow him on Twitter @CallumMorrisons and he’ll let you know when to fill out his 2020 survey.

MOA also hosted a cover cropping workshop last November and the videos are available on our website https://manitobaorganicalliance.com/article/nov-13-brandon-mb-getting-the-most-out-of-every-acre-through-cover-cropping/ or go straight to our YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLZg0amo8jn6M6b7O38ZvriznADlDmT9Mm

Still wanting to read more?

http://www.umanitoba.ca/outreach/naturalagriculture/covercrops.html

https://www.pivotandgrow.com/resources/production/cover-crops/

Favourite read (book)

Kevin’s Top Book Pick

“When Weeds Talk”

https://www.acresusa.com/products/weeds-and-why-they-grow

Host: Scott Beaton

Guests: Kevin Elmy & Callum Morrison

Narrator: Karen Klassen

Producer: Karen Klassen

Editor: Karen Klassen

Consultant: Anne Kirk

Disclaimer

The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the speakers and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Manitoba Organic Alliance.

Next Episode

Farming with pollinators

Sponsor

Funding is provided in part by the Canada and Manitoba governments through the Canadian Agricultural Partnership.

Additional sponsorship has been provided by Secan.

SeCan is the largest supplier of certified seed to Canadian farmers with more than 600 independent seed business members from coast to coast engaged in seed production, processing and marketing. We are a private, not-for-profit, member corporation with the primary goal of accessing and promoting leading genetics.

https://www.secan.com/

Resources links

The Xerces Society has some great resources:

https://xerces.org/pollinator-resource-center/north-central

Save the fireflies. Do you know what firefly larva can do for your crops?

https://xerces.org/endangered-species/fireflies

https://www.xerces.org/endangered-species/fireflies

https://www.xerces.org/publications/guidelines/conserving-jewels-of-night

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJqKStBOLHc

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCAiPLPJuySOgn6CbjkOxqLQ?reload=9

Want to speak with Stephanie Frischie from the Xerces Society about starting a pollinator patch on your farm?

[email protected]

Mobile: 219 208 5879

Want to ask Mike Killewald from the University of Manitoba a question about bugs?

[email protected]

Here are some of Mike’s recommended links:

Discoverlife.org and bugguide.net have some great identification and general resources, although their identification resources might be somewhat hard for the general public to use.

Decent guide for "what's that bug?" type identification because it's broken down by general insect shape.

https://www.insectidentification.org/

The Manitoba Government website has lots of great resources:

https://www.gov.mb.ca/agriculture/crops/insects/

Specifically, the insect scouting guide can be downloaded for free here and has a lot of species-specific information on controlling pests of many crops grown in Manitoba. https://www.gov.mb.ca/agriculture/crops/guides-and-publications/index.html#fsg

Pollinators.msu.edu has lots of great resources about bees, including managing wildflowers for pollinators and creating a bee hotel. The bee hotels are an easy way to manage native bees in your backyard. Pdf can be downloaded here https://pollinators.msu.edu/resources/pollinator-planting/native-bee-habitat/

For Manitoba crop specific insect updates you can request to be part of John Gavloski’s email list: [email protected]. He sends out the occasional insect reports during the growing season.

There is also this resource if you don’t have it:

http://publications.gc.ca/site/eng/9.852934/publication.html

Whitney Cranshaws’ Garden Insects book is a good one, but not really tailored toward agriculture. https://muse.jhu.edu/book/41619

Allison mentioned that you can find regional resources on Pollinator Partnership Canada.

https://pollinatorpartnership.ca/en/

Favourite books

These are available for sale through booksellers (not from Xerces). They are available as thank you gifts for becoming a member of Xerces. https://gifts.xerces.org/

https://www.xerces.org/publications/books/farming-with-native-beneficial-insects

https://xerces.org/publications/books/attracting-native-polli...