Title : Harvest Weed Seed Control in the United States
Abstract:
The loss of herbicides due to resistance threatens the future of the highly productive conservation cropping systems has been the motivation for growers to develop and adopt alternate systems. Subsequently, one of these alternative approaches, harvest weed seed control (HWSC), was developed to target weed seed passing through the harvester during grain harvest. The United States has just begun to implement HWSC tactics in the past decade, although this weed management tactic has been around for nearly 30 years. In addition to the efficacy of various HWSC methods, understanding the basic biology of the weeds present at harvest is imperative. There is little research on the quantity of seed that is retained on different weed species at harvest time, especially over large geographic ranges. As the adoption of HWSC systems continues to grow there will be an increasing demand for more refined systems that are easier to use and have minimal impact on harvest efficiency. Similarly, with HWSC now being considered in a range of global cropping systems, there is an increasing need for the adaptation of HWSC systems for these situations.
