Robot weeding demonstrations, expo, offered at field day

The Midwest Mechanical Weed Control Field Day, the nation’s largest field day focused on mechanical weed control, is returning to an in-person event.

The field day, which includes an expo and demonstrations, is Sept. 14, at Michigan State University’s Southwest Michigan Research and Extension Center in Benton Harbor, Michigan.

The morning Expo provides opportunities to see weeding tools from many companies and to meet the farmers in attendance from throughout the U.S. and Canada. University weed scientists from surrounding states and farmer-experts will share their experiences. Walk-Behind Alley will feature demonstrations of walk-behind tractors and implements. You can also visit the exhibit booths for other companies in allied trades such as farm-service and soil amendments.

At noon, the field day will break for lunch, which is an opportunity for farmers to break bread together or to continue looking at equipment and speaking with exhibitors. In the afternoon attendees will follow the tractors out to the demonstration field, where corn, beets, and cabbage have been planted especially for the demonstrations. Myriad cultivators and cultivating tractors will be demonstrated in the field and explained by manufacturers. These demonstrations will show how the machines should be mounted and properly adjusted, and will help farmers visualize how the implements can work on their own farms to increase efficiency and productivity.

Row-crop tools in the demonstration include the Treffler Harrow, Einbock Harrow, and several types of camera-guided cultivators with finger weeders. Demonstrations will be held in a field of 5-foot-tall corn.

Vegetable tools include the Tilmor Tractor and its basket weeder, parallel-unit cultivator and other tools, Steketee parallel units of side-knives and finger weeders mounted on the Franken-G, Treffler harrow, a variety of KULT-Kress belly-mounted and rear-mounted steerable tools, Mechanical Transplanter with their planting machine and plastic layer, and cultivators from Japan!

Registration for this day of learning and networking on mechanical weed control is $50. Registration includes breakfast, lunch, and all the demos you can handle. It is recommended that everyone register early because space runs out each year.

Register online at https://thelandconnection.org/event/2022-mmwcfd/

For more info on the event and registration, contact Cassidy at cassidy@thelandconnection.org or (217) 840-2128.

If you would like to bring a cultivator to the field day, please call or text Sam Oschwald Tilton at 414-213-5337 or email at glacialdrift@protonmail.com.