Originally published April 29, 2025 on Western Producer
By Janelle Rudolph
Inter-row cultivators have become a staple for many organic producers and have been subject of much research over the last 20 years.
However, some organic producers remain on the fence about the investment.
“I got through most of my wheat acres, and there was a noticeable benefit in my yield at the end on those fields that I weeded,” said Will Robbins, an organic producer near Delisle, Sask
”And there was a noticeable benefit in — I did a couple of seed tests for protein, volume, number, etc.”
He ran a small test comparing the non-weeded area of the field to the weeded section and found that the weeded section was nearly one per cent better for protein and had better yields.
Ryan Potts, an organic producer near Shellbrook, Sask., has had similar results, and the equipment has enabled more production.
“It’s allowed us to achieve higher yields by having better control in a crop of our weed populations,” he said.
“And then on top of that, it’s allowed us to also adopt more continual cropping systems. Before, we relied heavily on our summer fallowing techniques.”
Robbins purchased his cultivator in 2018 and did a lot of research before making the decision.
He looked through research from the University of Saskatchewan that included a cost analysis based on yield benefit varying from a two to 30 per cent increasse. After pricing out what it would cost, he determined that if the cultivator was only used on lentils and peas, it could be paid off in three to five years.
“It was a big capital expenditure, but we thought it made sense,” he said.
“And I think it has been a benefit to us.”
It’s a 20 foot Einbocker, which is half the width of his seed drill, and comes with its pros and cons.
While he wishes he would have splurged for the 40 foot cultivator, because of the additional time it takes to complete all the fields, the advantage is that his 110 horsepower chore tractor is able to pull it and get the job done. Additionally, he has a GPS system in the tractor that makes it easier to set up the cultivator.
Potts, on the other hand, went with the 40 foot to match his drill rows. He uses a John Deere guidance system.
He’s also opted for a chore tractor, a T5 with smaller tires, because a row crop tractor isn’t strong enough to pull the cultivator.
“Turns out these cultivators, they’re three-point hitch cultivators, there’s quite a a bit of weight to them,” he said.
“So we went to lift that up, and pretty much flattened out our back tires (on the row tractor). So we changed that pretty fast.”
Both producers’ machines have six-inch shovels and use a 10-inch space, which is as narrow as possible. They had originally run seven-inch shovels, but it made the gap between shovel edge and crop row too narrow, creating a risk of crop damage and burying.
As well, Robbins operates with row guards to prevent plant burial and eliminate effect to crop emergence.
“They’re expensive, as an addition to a machine that’s already expensive, but I found them to be useful,” he said.
“It’s widened my window on when I can weed, and has more or less eliminated that problem (burying plants).”
With the guards, he can go a bit quicker than Potts, who operates between four and six m.p.h. to reduce dirt spread. However, it’s nowhere near as quick as the operation manual recommendation of 10 m.p.h., which Robbins has tried but saw too much crop burial.
Both farmers say the cultivator works well on annual weeds, specifically small annuals, and they set their shovels one to 1.5 inches deep to uproot weeds but not go too deep into the soil.
However, perennial weeds are a different story.
The well established root system causes greater issues of elimination and takes much more time because plant get caught up in the machinery. Robbins and Potts said Canadian thistle and quack grass were the worst and that those patches weren’t worth the time it took.
After each pass, they had to get out and clean the cultivator off. And in the long term, there was only a marginal difference — if they were lucky. Overall, perennials are much too competitive.
The exception for Robbins was wild mustard, which he said he was able to “knock it back.” While he didn’t eliminate the weed entirely, the patch in his field was smaller.
The other challenge for the inter-row cultivator is time — making sure there’s enough time to cover every field, making sure to do it at the right time and taking time to figure everything out.
While there’s a bit of a learning curve in finding the right speed, depth and guidance system, both farmers said it’s well worth it. Once that’s straightened out, it’s just a matter of getting the job done.
“Our problem is time,” Robbins said.
“We don’t have enough hours of operator time to get through all our acres from the time I finish seeding to the time those rows close in.”
He seeds his pulses first and then his cereals, so that’s the order he weeds them. He admits that by the time he gets to cereal weeding, some weeds might be too large, but he makes it work.
He has to make sure that by the time he’s finished seeding, the weeds haven’t created too thick of a carpet in the field because if that happens, the camera won’t work. The camera system works on green-brown identification, so if the weeds are too grown in, the rows can’t be clearly located.
“The camera really is what’s doing the work, so the guidance on the track itself prevents overlap and keeps it going in a straight line,” Potts said.
“But the captain does all the work to keep it between the rows.”