[Kick the Tires] Oregon Leafy Greens Grower Shares His 5 Favorite Farm Tools
Jeremy Mueller and his wife Ashli founded Commonplace Farm from the soil up to serve the health of the local community in Corvallis, OR. They grow a wide variety of organic leafy greens on their 24 acres while using regenerative farming practices. Depending on the season, they employ between three and 18 workers. Here Jeremy Mueller picks his five favorite pieces of equipment.
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Mounted Mulcher TSG (Forigo)
“This is a specialized flail mower that allows us to shred salad crops down to the ground after harvest," Jeremy Mueller says. "We often use this before renovating beds for replanting with minimal tillage.”
Forigo.it
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Argus Cultivator System (KULT Kress)
“We use this cultivator in all of our transplanted lettuce crops to cut as close as possible to the planted rows and eliminate as many weeds as possible. We typically hit crops at six days and 12 days with this cultivator and then in-row hoe one time by hand. We also use it to cultivate laterals.”
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PVC pipe system (Certa-Set) with 1000 Series On/Off Valves (Nelson Irrigation)
“We have an in-ground mainline with risers for every lateral. On every riser we have a Nelson 1000 valve made to accept Certa-Set pipe. This allows us to connect our sprinkler lines directly into the automatic valves so we can water efficiently.”
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Series 2000 Leafy Greens Harvester (Ortomec)
“We've been using this harvester for all of our baby leaf salad crops for the past eight years," Jeremy Mueller continues. "It is a clever and fairly simple three-point machine, powered by a hydraulic roller pump that attaches to the tractor PTO (Power Take Off). With clean crops and good conditions, we harvest and bring in 400 to 500 pounds of salad an hour.”
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Custom bed cultivator (Sutton Ag Enterprises)
“We needed a tool that could shallowly cultivate beds and wheel tracks, so we worked with Sutton Ag to have this bed cultivator made. We have also modified it as needed. We use it to cultivate pre-irrigated stale beds and to renovate beds after harvesting and shredding baby leaf crops. It's a way that we can reduce tillage and avoid bringing up weed seeds from deeper in the soil.”
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Mounted Mulcher TSG (Forigo)
Argus Cultivator System (KULT Kress)
PVC pipe system (Certa-Set) with 1000 Series On/Off Valves (Nelson Irrigation)
Series 2000 Leafy Greens Harvester (Ortomec)
Custom bed cultivator (Sutton Ag Enterprises)
RELATED CONTENT: 5 Favorite Farm Equipment Pieces from the Crew at Crisp Country Acres
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Thomas Skernivitz is Senior Editor, Horticulture Group, at Meister Media Worldwide. See all author stories here.