Organic weed control on the Possin family farm

When, how and why did you get into organic farming? My first year certified was 1998. In 1996, I had a disaster with conventional farming. I put on some chemicals on corn to control broadleaves and the grass. The weather was cold and wet when it was applied, and it stunted my corn crop. The corn never got over 3 or 4 feet high, and the ears were all crippled up. I happened to go to a seed corn crop day, and the salesman was farming organically. He told me a little bit about his operation. I looked at my own operation and what happened to me, and I said, “I think I could do better without farming all these chemicals.” I started out by transitioning 100 acres. Then, I decided I had to have my heart fully in it, so I transitioned the remaining acres. I was probably farming 800-900 acres at the time.

What types of weed control do you currently employ? First, we start with a spring tillage pass, and then we plant. Before the crop comes up, we handle pre-emergent weeds with an 80-foot Hatzenbichler drag. Depending on when the crop comes up, we will use a rotary hoe, but we do not use that every year.

Once the crop is up high enough, we will come in with a Treffler tine weeder. We do tine weeding two or three times, depending on the crop. After that, on corn, we have two 16-row cultivators, a Hatzenbichler and an Einbock. These have finger weeders that go right into the row without taking the crop out. On corn, for our last pass, we will usually use a Hiniker ridge till cultivator. Overall, we will do five to six cultivator passes, depending on the year. Usually, we have pretty clean crops, but the last few years, we’ve had so much rain that the weeds just never quit coming.

We also have a weed zapper. We use weed zapping predominantly on rag weed and weeds that get above soybeans or black beans. Using the weed zapper is the last thing we turn to; we focus on our other methods first. We also will walk our fields and manually get stragglers so they do not go to seed.

We use flamers as needed; we do not use them every year. I have 20 years of experience on flaming; it is a science. We basically only use it on corn. It sets the corn back, but it does come back.

Are there any organic weed control methods you have not tried that you want to? The only one I have seen out there right now is laser technology that kills weeds individually. The problem is that it’s too slow and too expensive. I do not know how practical that technology will ever be. It might get there someday, but right now, the options out there cost well over $1 million.

Are there any weed control methods or management practices you have tried and decided do not work well for your farm? I have tried cover crops like rye in the fall and oats in the spring. How well that works seems to be weather-dependent and how much rain you get and when. One year, we had a rye that got rained on, and by the time we got the crop destroyed and the next planted, it hurt our yields. We will continue to work on cover crops because they are important. I also have inter-seeded our corn with legumes with mixed results. Some years, if there was no timely rain, it never germinated, and it was like throwing money out the window. We have not given up on these management practices, however, because I do think that they are important.

What is an aspect of weed management you are working on? With tine weeders, if you get too much trash, they become dump rakes. Because of this, a lot of times, we will plow down our corn stalks. We’re trying to find some new methods where we can go with high-speed discs or something similar in the fall, where it would break up the stalks. That way, we can still use the tine weeders and plant soybeans or black beans on corn ground.

Do you have a favorite weed control method? If so, what sets it apart? The row crop cultivators with finger weeders and the tine weeders. You can get into the row, especially on the tine weeders. We use GPS automated steering on our tractors with 1-inch tolerance. That makes weed control easier for us because you just have to pay attention to your implement and not worry about the driving.

Tell us more about your farm and family. I have three sons who farm with me. Tom is our mechanic. Michael also returned to the farm with an ag business degree. The last son to join, Jimmy, was an attorney for 13-14 years in Canada and wanted a change of pace, so he decided to come back. They all have different skills and talents, and they work together well. It’s been a blessing to have three sons come back. We have expanded the farm a lot as our sons returned. We are about as large as we want to be — any more, and it would be too much to take care of. I am 74 years old, and I am phasing out of the operation.

I lost my wife and sweetheart, Christine, last November in a head-on collision with an intoxicated driver. Christine was the mother of our nine children: three sons and six daughters. I just visited my 45th grandchild out in Utah in February. During the growing up years, we homeschooled our children, and they were part of the farm.

As far as farming goes, I would never go back to conventional. I love what I do, and I’m just so happy to be away from all the chemicals.