Organic Weed Control in Vegetables

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Organic Weed Control in Vegetables

Thursday, September 19, 2024 | 1:45 PM CDT - 6:00 PM CDT

Cattail Organics, 247011 Baldwin Creek Rd, Athens, WI

A hands-on training to understand the theory and practice for ag educators and farmers

Controlling weeds is the biggest challenge on many vegetable farms, especially for organic farms and those transitioning to organic. Labor time used in killing weeds can be so hard for farmers' wallets and their backs. There are a wide variety of weeding tools available for all scales that can save farmers time and money - but it can be hard to choose the right weeding implement and to know how to adjust them in the field to be effective. Farmers also use different scales of machinery - hand tools, two wheel tractors, and 4-wheel tractors - and it is helpful for ag advisors to understand machinery options for different scales.

This event brings together an experienced farmer and an organic weed control expert to guide participants into understanding the many weeding tool options and becoming familiar with how to use them. You’ll take a farm tour to see how weed management is planned into every part of Cattail Organics farm, and then spend time in the vegetable field learning about weed ecology, seeing many weeding tools, learning how to adjust them to match field conditions, and trying them yourself in a demo plot.

This event will help Ag advisors (Extension, NRCS, agronomists, non-profits) better understand and help farmers with weed management. Also farmers can learn about new tools, try new tools, and reduce the weeds on their farm.

1:45- 2:00 Arrival, registration, coffee

2:00-2:30 Introductions

2:30-3:15 Farm tour

3:15-3:45 How weeds work, weed ecology

3:45-4:15 Introduction to tools and machinery types

4:15-4:45 How to adjust tools

4:45-5:30 Hands-on time to try tools

5:30-6:00 Snack, evaluations, closing

Kat Becker of Cattail Organics in Athens WI, is in her 20th season as an organic vegetable farmer. Kat brings a particular perspective to weed control after transitioning from Stoney Acres (2006-2017) to Cattail Organics (2017- Present). In the transition, she downsized from 14 acres in vegetables to 5, increased total gross sales and profitability, and used the lessons and limitations from her first farm business to develop new integrated systems. At Cattail, Kat farms with her husband and 2-4 employees. Her approach is based on a lean labor model dependent on lower weed pressure. Cattail has built a highly profitable system using a mixture of tillage (and reduced tillage) regimes, raised beds, extensive covered production, consistent rotations, synthetic mulches, and cover crops to limit weeding labor, address disease concerns, and reduce weed seed banks. Weed control systems are planned independently according to crop profitability, length of cropping season, and specific weed pressures in a given field.

Sam Oschwald Tilton is an agriculture consultant at Glacial Drift LLC, and the Training Developer for OATS. 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 developed and sold weeding machines for the KULT-Kress company; visited farms throughout Europe and the U.S.; and worked on and managed vegetable farms in WI. For the past 6 years he has organized the Midwest Mechanical Weed Control Field Day. Previously Sam taught horticulture at Lakeshore Technical College and served as the Fresh Market Vegetable Specialist for UW-Madison Extension. Sam’s teaches about weed management around the country.

This event is supported through the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Transition to Organic Partnership Program (TOPP). TOPP is a program of the USDA Organic Transition Initiative and is administered by the USDA Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) National Organic Program (NOP).

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