Below you can find the key results found from the 2nd year of the HWSC project. Data was analysed by weed scientist Will Smith at NIAB after receiving weed samples from BOFIN member Seed Scouts. Let us know your thoughts...is this what you expected?
Results are in from Seed Scout Data
- Thread starter skye @ bofin
- Start date
Results from the samples sent in by Seed Scouts indicate up to 50% of the seed from uncontrolled grassweeds could have been intercepted at harvest by introducing the correct equipment on-farm.
The Harvest Weed Seed Control (HWSC) project, led by Driver Farms, aims to help farmers establish reasonable expectation of what proportion grassweed is left standing at harvest and available to Seed Control Units (SCU’s) (or other similar control measures).
The project involved four farmers who had SCUs fitted to their combines, working with Will Smith from NIAB who drew up a protocol for assessing weeds and efficacy of the SCU.
Once the protocol was finalised, BOFIN recruited 42 Seed Scouts who received seed-sampling packs. These included full-instructions on how to carry out the protocol and guided them to videos on the BOFIN YouTube channel to provide further assistance. This enabled them to get a reliable indication of how much weed seed is shed between full ear emergence and when the combine cuts the crop.
As you can see in the chart above, there were 5 types of grassweeds sent into the lab at NIAB. It was noted that the most common grassweed sent in was blackgrass, with around 20-25% of the seed still in ear at harvest. It was found that Italian ryegrass had 40-50% of seed still intact which was slightly underwhelming as previous research indicated this number to be 70-80%. Similar results were found with meadow brome with only 50% of seed left intact. Sterile brome had around 40% of seed still in ear and wild oats, as little as 5%.
Although these results give such great indications of what can be expected from the different grassweeds at harvest time, Will did point out that “although a nationwide survey was conducted, it did only consist of 25 samples being returned. In order to build a more reliable and comprehensive database, it is imperative that farmers continue to get involved.”
An important part of the HWSC project was to understand how the results gathered from the seed samples could indicate the importance of the use of harvest weed seed control measures, such as the SCU.
Thank you to all of our Seed Scouts who took part in the HWSC project. Your hard work and dedication does not go unnoticed. Let us know your thoughts below!
The Harvest Weed Seed Control (HWSC) project, led by Driver Farms, aims to help farmers establish reasonable expectation of what proportion grassweed is left standing at harvest and available to Seed Control Units (SCU’s) (or other similar control measures).
The project involved four farmers who had SCUs fitted to their combines, working with Will Smith from NIAB who drew up a protocol for assessing weeds and efficacy of the SCU.
Once the protocol was finalised, BOFIN recruited 42 Seed Scouts who received seed-sampling packs. These included full-instructions on how to carry out the protocol and guided them to videos on the BOFIN YouTube channel to provide further assistance. This enabled them to get a reliable indication of how much weed seed is shed between full ear emergence and when the combine cuts the crop.
As you can see in the chart above, there were 5 types of grassweeds sent into the lab at NIAB. It was noted that the most common grassweed sent in was blackgrass, with around 20-25% of the seed still in ear at harvest. It was found that Italian ryegrass had 40-50% of seed still intact which was slightly underwhelming as previous research indicated this number to be 70-80%. Similar results were found with meadow brome with only 50% of seed left intact. Sterile brome had around 40% of seed still in ear and wild oats, as little as 5%.
Although these results give such great indications of what can be expected from the different grassweeds at harvest time, Will did point out that “although a nationwide survey was conducted, it did only consist of 25 samples being returned. In order to build a more reliable and comprehensive database, it is imperative that farmers continue to get involved.”
An important part of the HWSC project was to understand how the results gathered from the seed samples could indicate the importance of the use of harvest weed seed control measures, such as the SCU.
Thank you to all of our Seed Scouts who took part in the HWSC project. Your hard work and dedication does not go unnoticed. Let us know your thoughts below!