PFI

Friday, Sept. 11 | 12:30 – 1:10 p.m.

4th Annual Midwest Mechanical Weed Control Field Day in partnership with The Land Connection

Episode 1: Drone Wars – “An Exploration of Camera-Guided Cultivation in Row Crops”

The 4th Annual Midwest Mechanical Weed Control Field Day is the nation’s largest event devoted to weeding tools. This year, due to COVID-19, the field day will be held online. In this three-part series, MMWC field day organizer Sam Hitchcock Tilton and farmer-friend Hans Bishop will host a series of virtual mechanical weed control field days at Hans’ farm. Join the pair to see and discuss new and old weed control equipment, including set-up and use in both row crops and vegetables. We will resume the in-person field day in 2021 – save the date for Sept. 15, 2021, at Pheasant Run Farm in Belle Plaine, Iowa.

Hosts: Hans Bishop & Sam Hitchcock Tilton

The Presenters:

Hans Bishop and his family have been farming PrairiErth Farm’s 300 acres for about 30 years. Located in the center of Illinois about 160 miles from downtown Chicago, the Bishops operate a diversified farm and raise a bit of about everything. Today, Hans and Katie manage most of the farm’s operations, including 35 acres of organic vegetables and 200 acres of organic soybeans, corn, wheat and oats.

Sam Hitchcock Tilton is a horticulture instructor at Lakeshore Technical College near Sheboygan, Wisconsin. He has a background in vegetable farming and a master’s degree from Michigan State University with a focus on precision weeding tools. Sam has designed weeding machines for KULT-Kress and visited farms throughout Europe and the U.S., and he organizes the Midwest Mechanical Weed Control Field Day.

Topics:

• Setting up a camera-guided cultivator with finger weeders in corn and beans
• Field conditions that need to be entered into the computer for a camera-guided cultivator
• Calibrating tools for field conditions and run in crops
• Conventional front-mount cultivation

Tools and Tractors:

• Camera-guided cultivator with shovels and finger weeders
• 12-row front-mounted cultivator
• IH 806

Other Events in the Series:

• Sept. 18: Preliminary tool set-up in the shop
• Sept. 25: Precision cultivation of direct-seeded vegetables

Note: You may attend all events in the series, or pick the ones you’re most interested in.

Format: Virtual Field Day (#1 of Series)

Platform: Facebook Live