Physical and Cultural Weed Control Workshop 2024


Posted on June 6th, 2024 on 13:22:15 by Judith Wirth



Report on the EWRS workshop on Physical and Cultural Weed Control Workshop in Wageningen

The working group meeting on physical and cultural weed control organized by the EWRS took place at Wageningen University and Research (Netherlands) from 27.05. to 29.05.2024. The workshop was organized by Judith Wirth as the "Physical and Cultural Weed Control" working group leader and Timo Sprangers as local organizer. The workshop was financially supported by the EWRS.

42 participants coming from 13 different countries attended the workshop. To cover a part of their travel expenses, the EWRS provided travel grants to 4 young scientists.

The workshop included 21 scientific presentations on cover crops, perennial weeds, integrated weed management and seeding and interrow weeding as well as the presentation of 8 posters.

On the first day, we started with 6 oral presentations on cover crops followed by 6 presentations on perennial weeds. In the afternoon the poster session was held, followed by 3 animated discussion groups on integrated weed management, cover crops and perennials.

On Tuesday a field trip took the participants to Vredepeel, an experimental farm of Wageningen Plant Research. The autonomous agricultural tool carrier Robotti was demonstrated, followed by the visit of a trial on integrated crop management, comparing a conventional farming system with an integrated farming system.

On the way to the experimental field and at the trial site of the integrated crop management trail at Wageningen Plant Research (28.05.2024).

In the afternoon we went to the 500-ha farm Derks Gewasbescherming at Volkel. The farmer demonstrated the autonomous farming robot FarmDroid in a sugar beet field. FarmDroid is an automatic robot that both seeds and mechanically weeds. 

Group picture in front of the FarmDroid during the field trip (28.05.2024).

Looking at the FarmDroid during the field trip (28.05.2024).

On Wednesday morning the day started with 4 presentations on integrated weed management followed by 5 presentations on seeding and interrow weeding. The workshop finished at lunch time. 

The aim of the workshop was to discuss recent developments in the area of physical and cultural weed control. All participants participated very actively which led to an intensive exchange of ideas and experiences and some future projects and cooperations might have been initiated. In the future the working group intends to establish a more regular exchange by webinars, online discussion groups, etc. The details are still being worked out. 


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