Garford Farm Machinery announced a new agreement at the Cereal Event yesterday with electrical weed control manufacturer RootWave to integrate electrical weeding into its Robocrop precision guided toolbar systems.
Based in Warwickshire, RootWave has developed EWeeding, which uses patented high frequency alternating-current technology, said to be safer than direct-current more commonly used in electric weeders. It ‘boils’ the roots and stem of the weed, killing it without disturbing the soil, and has been used on a hand weeder developed for treating invasive weeds in amenity situations and on a tractor-trailed orchard and vineyard weeder.
Examples depicted at Cereals included front and rear mounted electrical toolbars, powered by a generator pack carried on the tractor, but Garford’s Jonathan Henry says that prototypes will be developed to meet customer requirements.
“Inter-row electrical treatment could also be combined with in-row mechanical weeding on the same toolbar,” he points out. “It’s a flexible system and camera guidance can be tailored to the row width, giving greater accuracy than RTK guidance.
“Electrical weeding allows treatment closer to harvest to give a cleaner crop for salad growers who face product restrictions. It also extends the treatment window in difficult soil conditions.”
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