Is It Worth Cultivating Corn With Good Weed Control?

JohnS1970 · Jun 13, 2012

Have about 30 acres of corn on clay ground that's a bit behind the rest on loam and was wondering if it's worth the fuel and effort to run a cultivator through it. I wouldn't be doing it for weed control; it would be more to aerate/loosen up the soil. If I was to cultivate it would be a first for me, so what ground speed, depth, crop stage am I looking at? I guess I'm asking for any and all advice those with experience might give. Thanks in advance.

tomNE · Jun 13, 2012

nope!

Anonymous-0 · Jun 13, 2012

All you would be doing is bringing new weed seed to the top to germinate.

Anonymous-0 · Jun 13, 2012

No you will lose your weed control and only contribute to compaction. The only place for cultivating in modern corn growing applications is for resistant weeds or poor weed control.

mkirsch · Jun 13, 2012

We spread nitrogen and cultivated corn for a few years, and it does make a difference. The corn seemed to grow 6" overnight, especially if you got a little rain.

I think what happened is the time and expense required to do it just didn't show up at harvest. You got better corn, but not THAT much better.

That, and roundup-ready corn came along.

All I can say is, if you've got the equipment give it a try. It can't hurt anything.

Anonymous-0 · Jun 13, 2012

A crop specialist who writes for a farmer's trade paper in the northeast (Country Folks) has the opposite view. He cites research that cultivation increases yields in corn with or without herbicide weed control. The reason is it aerates the soil and supplies oxygen to the roots. Whether the gain in yield offsets the cost of fuel is hard to say. Test it out. Cultivate HALF the field and see what happens. I think he recommends cultivating once or twice.

greygoat · Jun 13, 2012

I made some money, as a teenager, in the 50"s
cultavating corn with a John Deere A for a
neighbor. No one ever mentioned "Compaction" then
The first farmer to use chemicals was called
LAZY, and people said,"he"s in the house watching
TV,while others work!"

fixerupper · Jun 13, 2012

Like the others say, you won't be gaining anything. And if you cultivate the way I used to, you will lose a little stand to cultivator blight. The old timers used to say the corn looked so much better after a cultivation, and it did look better but it was because the soil was darker and the cotrast was better. Jim

JDseller · Jun 13, 2012

You only will be bring a new generation of weeds to the top to germinate. Unless you used Atrex at a heavy rate your weed control will be messed up. Plus if it stays dry the worked ground will just dry out more. It is not worth the time and effort.

If it is short on Nitrogen then side dress it would get you better results.

Richard G. · Jun 13, 2012

You aerate the soil and a light cultivation loosens the top and stops some ET. (evapotransporation).
It acts like a mulch on top..
At least that is what one of my old soils professors use to say.
Richard

Howard H. · Jun 13, 2012

Dig down a couple of inches in between the rows of corn and trace a few roots out...

You might be surprised to see how many corn plant roots you'll be cutting...

I'd say rely on chemical as much as you can...

Howard

hd6gtom · Jun 13, 2012

JohnS stay out of the field unless you have a major weed control problem. You will break up the weed control barrier you spray'd on the ground.

Huskers86 · Jun 13, 2012

Go ahead and cultivate that spot, it doesn't cost much to do it if you have the equiptment and you'll see the benifit. By the sounds of it that spot may not make anything anyway so you are not out much but some time. If it is dryland you may want to wait untill the corn is almost to canopy to shade the new growth or go early enough to hit it with spray. Prices are decent and it will increase your bottom line.

Philt · Jun 13, 2012

I cultivated 35 acres with my 930 a week ago but I had a lot of weeds, the corn does seem to shoot up over night. I used about 7 gallons of fuel. I like to cultivate when the corn just barely brushes the bottom of the tractor and go just fast enough to push some soil up around the corn plant. You will have to go slower in shorter corn as the soil kicked up by the cultivator will knock over the corn. I personally like to cultivate maybe I just enjoy the extra time on the tractor.

tomstractorsandtoys1 · Jun 13, 2012

I just put our 3020 and four row front mounted cultivator in the shed for tonite, so I will say that cultivating is worth it.In our soils we get 4-8 bu. by cultivating.Even many of the big operaters do some cultivating especially in a year with lots of heavy rains to compact the ground.We top dress with urea then cultivate it in.

JimEvans · Jun 14, 2012

I used to design high residue cultivators. They would pop out the weeds, not disturb the residue, loosen the soil, and you could do this at 8-9 mph.
I think Hiniker might be the only one still making that type of cultivator. - http://www.hiniker.com/ag_products%20new/6000_cultivator.html
I will warn you that it takes a real tractor to run that type of cultivator. You are not going to do it with a 3020 JD. It will take something with at least 180 HP to pull a 12 row cultivator.

I remember seeing a piece of literature from Deere that said cultivating increases yields 10-15 bu/acre, even if you don't have a weed problem. Seems like increasing your income $50+/acre would be worth it, but most farmers now would rather go boating in the summer rather than tend their crops.

Here is more information from Iowa State:
http://www.ipm.iastate.edu/ipm/icm/1999/5-24-1999/choosecons.html

Elmers Grassman · Jun 14, 2012

Cornell research indicated enough of an increase in yield to justify cultivation even at 4 dollar a gallon farm diesel. So I"ld say get to it.

Is It Worth Cultivating Corn With Good Weed Control?

JohnS1970

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tomNE

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Anonymous-0

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Anonymous-0

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mkirsch

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Anonymous-0

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greygoat

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fixerupper

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Richard G.

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Philt

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