Equipment for Different Situations – Madsen, Wilson, Schultes

Managing weeds in an organic cropping system requires paying close attention to crop stages, weed stages, soil conditions and weather conditions. These factors will also inform which pieces of equipment are your best option for success at the time. Eric Madsen, Dean Schultes and Jaron Wilson share how they select equipment for particular situations.

Eric grew up on his family’s farm near Audubon, Iowa. The Madsen family is working to fully transition their corn, soybeans, oats and hay to organic production. They also raise farrow-to-finish hogs, broilers and beef cattle.

Jaron farms organic row crops near Paullina, Iowa, with his wife, Liz, and sons Walter and Peter. He is one of the members of Seven W Farms and is a self-taught tech enthusiast who does information technology repair work for his local community. He’s been repurposing old technology and farm equipment his whole life.

Dean was raised on the family farm outside of Dedham, Iowa, where he grew up with cultivating and walked soybeans every summer. His father certified the farm organic in 2001. Dean has been raising organic corn, soybeans, oats and hay for 10 years.

From our 2020 annual conference: Reclaiming Resilience.