Evaluation of New Harvesting Methods to Reduce Weeds on Arable Fields and Collect a New Feedstock

Christoph Glasner, Christopher Vieregge, Josef Robert, Johanna Fenselau, Zahra Bitarafan and Christian Andreasen
Additional contact information
Christoph Glasner: Fraunhofer Institute for Environmental, Safety, and Energy Technology UMSICHT, Osterfelder Str. 3, 46047 Oberhausen, Germany
Christopher Vieregge: CLAAS Selbstfahrende Erntemaschinen GmbH, Muehlenwinkel 1, 33428 Harsewinkel, Germany
Josef Robert: Fraunhofer Institute for Environmental, Safety, and Energy Technology UMSICHT, Osterfelder Str. 3, 46047 Oberhausen, Germany
Johanna Fenselau: Fraunhofer Institute for Environmental, Safety, and Energy Technology UMSICHT, Osterfelder Str. 3, 46047 Oberhausen, Germany
Zahra Bitarafan: Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Højbakkegaard Allé 13, DK-2630 Taastrup, Denmark
Christian Andreasen: Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Højbakkegaard Allé 13, DK-2630 Taastrup, Denmark

Energies, 2019, vol. 12, issue 9, 1-13

Abstract: During harvesting, grain, straw, and chaff with weed seeds are separated. The chaff is returned to the fields, resulting in weed problems in the subsequent crops. We estimated the fraction of weed seeds a combine harvester could potentially harvest and used various methods to collect the chaff and treat it with heat to kill weed seeds or reduce weed seed germination. Chaff with weed seeds was placed on top of the straw and afterwards baled with the straw as a method to remove weed seeds from the field. We exposed chaff with weed seeds to exhaust gas with various temperatures and durations to study whether this heating method could be used to reduce the input of viable weed seeds to the soil during harvesting. By collecting the shed weed seeds during the growing season, we estimated that a combine harvester could potentially harvest 41%, 11%, and 100% of the seeds produced in the growing season by Bromus hordeaceus , Cirsium arvense, and Galium aparine , respectively. When the chaff was placed on top of the straw, 45% of the weed seeds stayed in the chaff fraction on top of the straw swath after one day, 35% got into the straw swath, and 20% past through the swath to the ground. Therefore, baling straw with chaff placed on the top only had a limited effect on reducing weed seed infestation. The study showed that thermal weed seed control during harvesting could potentially be applicable and incorporated in an integrated weed management approach.

Keywords: agricultural residues; chaff; combine harvester; environmental impact; feedstock; Harvest Weed Seed Control; HWSC (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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