Midwest Mechanical Weed Control Field Day 2020 [VIRTUAL SERIES]

4th Annual Midwest Mechanical Weed Control Field Day goes VIRTUAL!

In collaboration with Practical Farmers of Iowa and Sam Hitchcock Tilton

The Midwest Mechanical Weed Control (MMWC) Field Day is the nation’s largest event devoted to weeding tools. This year, due to Covidian circumstances, the field day is taking a quantum leap forward and will move into a digital state. MMWC Field Day organizer, Sam Hitchcock Tilton, and farmer-friend, Hans Bishop, will host a series of virtual mechanical weed control field days from Hans’ farm, PrairiErth Farm in Atlanta, IL. Join the pair to see and discuss new and old weed control equipment, set-up and use in both row crops and vegetables.

Each virtual field day will take place at 12:30pm to 1:15pm and be streamed live on The Land Connection’s and Practical Farmers of Iowa’s Facebook pages.

September 11 — Episode 1: Drone Wars

Watch the set-up of a camera-guided cultivator with finger weeders in corn and beans. See which field conditions need to be entered into the computer for a camera-guided cultivator as well as how the tools are calibrated for field conditions and run in crops. We will also look at conventional front-mount cultivation.

Tools and tractors: Camera-guided cultivator with shovels and finger weeders; 12-row front mounted cultivator; IH 806

September 18 — Episode 2: The Awakening

Watch preliminary Tool Set-up in the shop – starting with a bare toolbar, see the measurements and progression of adding parallelogram units and tools to exactly match a crop spacing. Then watch all of the preliminary adjustments that can be made more accurately in the shop so that by the time you arrive at the field your machine only needs limited adjusting.

Tools and tractors: parallel units; side-knives; cut-away discs; torsion weeders; finger weeders; diamond-bar and belly-mount options; Modified Allis-G; Saukville; Super C; IH 274

September 25 — Episode 3: The First Encounter

Learn about precision cultivation of direct-seeded vegetables. Once the weeding tool has been mounted and adjusted in the shop (episode 2) watch the first run in the field and see how results are judged and adjustments are made to correct issues in order to quickly achieve accurate weeding in direct-seeded crops.

Tools and tractors: parallel units; side-knives; cut-away discs; torsion weeders; finger weeders; belly-mount options; Modified Allis-G; Saukville; Super C; IH 274

About the presenters:

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.

The Bishop Family have been farming PrairiErth Farm’s 300 acres, near Atlanta, IL for about 30 years. Located in the center of Illinois, the Bishops operate a diversified farm and raise Organic row crops and vegetables for sale at CSA, Farmer’s Market, and wholesale. Today, Hans and Katie manage most of the farm operations, including 35 acres of organic vegetables and 200 acres of organic soybeans, corn, wheat and oats.

Please register to be sent links and reminders for the Facebook live event series.