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Title: CULTIVATOR DESIGN FOR INTERROW WEED CONTROL IN NO-TILL CORN

Author
item PAARLBERG KEVIN - IOWA STATE UNIVERSITY
item HANNA H MARK - IOWA STATE UNIVERSITY
item Erbach, Donald
item HARTZLER ROBERT - IOWA STATE UNIVERSITY

Submitted to: American Society of Agricultural Engineers Meetings Papers
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 6/23/1995
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: More than 95% of Iowa row crop acres are treated with herbicides. Such extensive use of herbicides is an environmental concern. Banding of herbicides over the crop row, along with mechanical cultivation to control interrow weeds, has been proposed as a way to reduce herbicide use. Though cultivation is used by 80% of farmers, only 7% of herbicides are applied in a band. This indicates that cultivation is not relied upon for interrow weed control. The risk that weather conditions will not allow mechanical cultivation to be completed discourages use of herbicide banding. It is proposed that higher speed cultivation could improve the odds of timely completion of cultivation. An experiment was performed near Boone, IA, in 1993 and 1994 to evaluate high speed mechanical cultivation for weed control when used with herbicide banding. Three cultivator styles (sweep, Smith Fin, and point and share), two herbicide bandwidths (19 cm and 38 cm), and two cultivation speeds (8 and 11.2 km/hr) were tested. A continuous corn rotation in 76.2 cm row spacings and a single cultivation were used. Faster speed did not limit weed control or yield. In 1994, yield was greater in plots cultivated at 11.2 km/hr than in plots cultivated at 8 km/hr. In both years, weed populations were greater with a 19-cm band treatment than with a 38-cm band treatment. During 1994, plant population, extended leaf plant height, and yield were significantly less for herbicide applied in a 19-cm band than in a 38-cm band. In 1994, sweep and Smith-Fin cultivator treatments had greater yields and fewer weeds than did the point-and-share treatment. Residue cover was not significantly affected by cultivator used.