SUSWECO: New project on sustainable control of perennial weeds

10 May 2023, 15:08

SUSWECO is a new project between Norway and Sweden looking at how new sustainable way to control perennial weeds (such as couch grass, creeping thistle and perennial sow-thistle) in cereal production. Because they are so difficult to control, perennial weeds are one of the main drivers for herbicide (especially glyphosate/Round-up) and intensive tillage use, both of which have large negative impacts on the environment, soil health and human health.

SUSWECO will focus on combining subsidiary crops (e.g. cover crops) and a new innovative tool (the Kverneland Group’s root cutter) for sufficient weed control in cereals. The new root cutter makes it possible to combine the use of cover crop and tillage against weeds, with minimal soil disturbance. The cover crops will compete with the weeds, while keeping the soil covered over autumn and winter, reducing nutrient leaching and erosion, and increasing soil carbon sequestration and long-term soil fertility. SUSWECO is a continuation of the AC/DC-weeds project.

SUSWECO will a) test the combination of the new root cutter implement with cover crops. Both its efficacy against weeds, but also to measure the energy needs of the new root cutter implement; b) test alternative methods to herbicides for terminating the cover crop prior to establishing a new crop (otherwise glyphosate and/or ploughing is usually used), c) and develop new image analysis software for site-specific weed control that also work in cover crops (previous methods are primarily adapted to cover crop free cropping situations). Site-specific weed management can drastically reduce the environmental impacts of control efforts as it will be focused on problem areas rather than treating the whole field.

SUSWECO is a collaboration between the Norwegian University of Life Sciences (NMBU), RISE Research Institutes of Sweden, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU), The Norwegian Institute of Bioeconomy Research (NIBIO), Kverneland Group Operations Norway AS, MYHRES Maskinomsetning AS, FELLESKJØPET, Inland Norway University of Applied Sciences

Björn Ringselle

Forskare

+46 10 516 69 42