Rotary Hoe on Organic Soybeans 2020 

Thanks! I saw your last comment, but it would not post/allow me to reply :(. As a lifelong farmer/cattleman, I do enjoy looking at different geographical areas and types of farming! I must admit that I enjoy my cows more than row-cropping though ;). I love your avatar and channel name. The point of this channel is to show how a modern organic farm is operated AND how to make a living on the farm (without inheriting all of it...). Now, there are channels on youtube of new organic farmers using auto-steer to cultivate/till!! I guess I am old school now ;). Regardless, the basic techniques and approaches are timeless.

+1 :)

Farmall Fanatic When you’re proficient, it works! Thanks 😊

Ag Wild There’s a lot of weird right now 😉😳

Similar principle...shallow tillage, but acting by different mechanism :) A rotary hoe is just sharp spikes on a wheel which turn as you move forward in order to stir the top 1.5 inch of soil, thus killing small weeds!

My coyotes are prospering like your deer :)!!! The hole is made by a crawdad...it just shows you how wet some of my fields are ;)

Geiger Farm wow, that is wet!

Katherine Ivy 😳😂

Farmall Fanatic THAT was a crawl dad home 😉😁

Andy, you can change down pressure slightly by changing the angle of the three point hitch. The hoe will only primarily kill shallow beans in the hook stage. I am not worried about killing beans. I am worried about excessive compaction and trips across the field. When you have emergence issues AND dry weather, the hoe is a good choice! Thanks for watching and commenting. Hope you/your family are staying healthy and sane in these times of craziness!

When coyotes start killing the chickens Aaric...then we have a problem ;)

Someday I would like to investigate a modern harrow, such as a treffler for this blind tillage pass! Thanks!

@@GeigerFarm Jack, we used to use an einboch tine harrow. There were times I had issues with picking up debris as well. Good tool, but a rotary hoe has it's place as well. Many times I wished we had a rotary hoe. Seemed condition dependent.

grassfeeding It is condition dependent, but priceless when conditions are “right”

Good question John! So the main reason is probably because these machines were/are common in our area :). As you can see in my previous video on severe seedbed prep, I do work with a lot of residue occasionally. The rotary hoe will handle quite a bit of residue. The more residue that you have, the closer you have to watch the hoe, as it can "plug" and the spiders stop turning. The hoe does work well with my ridges from planting as it tends to push them down into the row pre-cultivation. I am intrigued by the Treffler harrow and will at some point purchase one for various operations, including pasture harrowing!

@@GeigerFarm I am keen to try a rotary hoe as we do very little ploughing here now and are working in quite a lot of trash which bungs up in a harrow. Thank you for your videos - so much to learn!!

Sorry it took so long to reply :(. The short answer is that the rotary hoe only disturbs the top one inch of soil. The soybeans are planted deeper than one inch. The hoe also only impacts the ground on a 3.5 by 4.5 inch grid. The individual spoons impact an area .5 by 1.5 inches. Thus, the probability of a direct impact is greatly reduced! I have rotary hoed a crop of beans when they were 4 inches tall with very little damage. Thanks for watching.

Thank you for the reply. No apologies nessary.

Just make sure the tractor's steering mechanisms is tight/properly adjusted. Then drive as fast as you can stay on the row :)!

@@GeigerFarm What speed do you use?

@@emildiaco78 As fast as I can go! Generally 7 to 12 mph.

👍🏻👍🏻🙂