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- Weed Control Equipment
Aids Northeast Grower
By Kimberly Warren
Staff Writer
Tim Laird is no mechanic. And with a grant from the Sustainable Agriculture and Research Education (SARE) program, he’s hoping to help other farmers rely less on their mechanics skills and focus more on their farming.
SARE annually awards grants to growers who are looking to study new ways of farming that could help other growers in their area. Laird’s project, “Comparative Study of Weed Management Tools in Vegetables and Berries: Old and New,” will look at some of the new equipment in sustainable vegetable growing that could potentially decrease the amount of time—and money—spent on weed management equipment.
“I’ve been intrigued by some of the tools—weeding tools—that have been coming out of Europe for a while now,” Laird, who is the crop manager at Drumlin Farm in Lincoln, Mass., said. “The big thing I was looking at was how to farm using just one reliable, relatively new tractor and how you could complement that with some of the tools that are coming out of Europe.”
Laird said that a lot of growers he knows have a cultivating tractor for every one or two crops they have. The growers have to spend their time and money on these tractors—especially as the tractors and equipment get older.
“I’m not a mechanic, so to fix some of the older tractors—they have problems often, and it tends to be magnified when you have a problem during the season and you don’t have time to fix them—you have to bring someone in, and that costs a lot of money,” he said.
Over the next year, Laird—with the help of growers from two other Massachusetts farms—will be looking at how the Star-Hoe from Bartschi-FOBRO and the Einbock Flex-Tine harrow perform in first-year strawberries, potatoes, onions and fall carrots. They will be comparing these with the more traditional Allis Chalmers G’s and International Cubs.
“The G’s and the Cubs are tried and true in organic agriculture for cultivating,” Laird said. “I was hoping to see what is comparable. If you can get away with having only two pieces of equipment that are easy to use that have a fixed cost—you buy them once and they aren’t going to break down—they won’t let you down during the season when the last thing you want to do is be tinkering with the machines.”
Laird purchased a Star-Hoe for use on the Drumlin Farm crops three years ago, and he said he has already seen noted improvements in time spent on repairs and the amount of money he has had to put into equipment.
“The first year, instead of spending all our time weeding, we could take all of those extra hours and put them into things like picking and selling and making money, which is what the ultimate goal is for most farmers: to make a living,” Laird said. “With the same number of labor hours, more or less, we jumped about $10,000 in sales in one year.”
Once he added the Flex-Tine into the mix, Laird said they jumped another $15,000—though he said he couldn’t give all of the credit to the equipment.
“I’ve been at the farm for five years, and I’m still trying to figure things out,” he said. “Those tools aren’t totally the reason for the $25,000 turn-around, but it’s a big reason, I think.
“We’re not spending any more money on labor, and we’re not doing anything different. We’re not doing any other marketing. We’re just having more volume to sell.”
Though Laird’s study won’t be conclusive, he said it “will give an indication of what some of these tools can do.” He said he thinks it will especially helpful for younger farmers.
“It’s something I know that other farmers, particularly younger farmers, have found kind of overwhelming to try to figure out the tractors and combining all the tools,” he said. “It (using the Star-Hoe and Flex-Tine) seemed like something that was a little easier; something that you can just buy that will work. Both of these tools are semi-intuitive. It’s not like you need generations of experience or knowledge to use them.
“It’s just another option for farmers in general, especially younger farmers who are just starting up who maybe haven’t bought all the equipment yet who are looking for a good scheme of dealing with the weeds.”
At the end of his one-year study, Laird will present a pamphlet that will illustrate the findings. They will include labor hours, tractor hours and total hours per linear foot. Laird is also giving tours of the farm to show what is being done.
Outreach like this is an important step to the grant process, Helen Husher, who is in charge of public information for the Northeast’s SARE, said.
“The real concept is that the farmer needs to gather the information and tell other people who will be affected,” Husher said. “Even if they get negative or ambiguous results, that goes out into the environment. We’re really looking for projects that benefit other farmers.
“What we’re really looking for is something innovative, something new. We want to encourage farmers to use new tools for sustainability.”
Each regional SARE office awards grants on an annual basis. For information on applying for a grant or to search an online database of past projects, visit www.sare.org.
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