Erisman has fields in different stages of organic transition and many crop sequences to juggle. Critical management situations include Rye to soybeans. In wet years, he starts with a flail mower to stop growth and buy time until field conditions permit disking. Final preplant weed control and soil conditioning comes from his 36-foot field cultivator. Rye requires careful management to coax out all its benefits.
Rye needs to be killed before it puts on explosive growth just before it heads out.
Rampant growth can dry out the soil in moisture-deficient years, or present too much biomass to easily incorporate or plant through, depending on a farm s equipment. The unit blows seeds through plastic tubes that scatter them under its 7-inch cultivator sweeps, which also eliminate small weeds during planting. Because air-seeders work whenever conditions permit field cultivating, he doesn t have to wait for soil to be as dry as a planter requires. This option reduces tillage passes in fields with low weed pressure. In solid-seeded fields, cultivation is not possible, so Erisman depends entirely on relatively low weed pressure going into the season, harrowing or rotary hoeing after planting and the quick establishment of a crop canopy to keep weeds to a tolerable level.