Nick Heinle all rights reserved.
Weeds diminish the yield of agriculture crops thus reducing profitability for the farmer.
The application of herbicides is the primary method used to control weeds in today's conventional farming systems. While herbicides are normally effective, their use also increases the cost of production. In addition, public concerns about the impact of herbicides and other agricultural chemicals on environmental health and food safety has led to renewed interest in developing agriculture farming systems that rely less on the use of pesticides. The goal of this project was to reduce weeds through improved mechanical weed control methods in a pesticide-free farming system. Weed control and yield differences were examined for soybeans following corn grown using both ridge till planting and conventional till planting.