Open access publications in the SLU publication database

Abstract

One way of reducing the cost and use of herbicides in sugar beets is to use band-spraying and inter-row cultivation. This technique however requires more labour than overall spraying. Therefore, a combined band-sprayer and inter-row cultivator was built and evaluated. The objective was to compare combined band-spraying and inter-row cultivation with conventional overall-spraying and band-spraying plus inter-row cultivation in separate operations. The herbicides were applied in 12 cm bands over the rows. Banded application reduced the use of herbicides by 75% Separate band-spraying and inter-row cultivation required twice as much labour than overall-spraying. Combined band-spraying and inter-row cultivation reduced the labour by 10-30% compared with separate treatments. Overall spraying gave 99 % weed control. The band-sprayed treatments gave slightly lower weed control because of too narrow band width and inaccurate guidance. Three different positions of the nozzles on the inter-row cultivator were evaluated; in front of, in the middle of and behind the cultivator. The dust that was expected to be a problem did not appear because the soil was moist. Consequently there was no correlation between weed-control and dust in the three different positions. Combined band-spraying and inter-row cultivation is a useful method but the band-width was too narrow on this prototype and the guidance system has to be improved. Combined treatment is recommendable to farmers who want to decrease the herbicides without increasing labour too much.