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Being an Organic Farm, we don't use any herbicides. Instead, we cultivate and make use of mulch where we can to help control weeds. In the low areas near our drainage ditch, we have left the wild bluestem grasses to grow in wide avenues. When it gets a couple feet tall, I chop it with our brush-hog. I rake it in rows shown here then come by with our trailer and haul it to were it's needed. (I think I left out the step where I use a hay fork to load it into the trailer, not having any tractor attachment yet that can do the job. It's lots of work, but I never need to go to a gym to work out!) In addition to weed control, we use the cut grass to add organic material to the soil. We get several cuttings from these fields each year. The photos show our fall cutting. Since we don't need weed control in the winter, we plow our fields - add this mulch to the furrows - then go over it with the disc to mix the cut grass with the soil. By spring, the grass has mostly decayed and helps keep our clay soil loose. |
