SimWeed - A model to assess weed management strategies in arable farming

Weed control is a substantial module of crop management in plant production. Beside the well-known procedures, e.g. chemical weed control by herbicides, also new procedures, e.g. precision fanning, are to the farmer's disposal. These methods extend the possibilities of weed control. The extended possibilities can be used reasonably only if the location prerequisites are right and the additional technical expenditure is paid off economically. The computer model SimWeed should make its contribution for the assessment of different weed management strategies. Both chemical and mechanical weed management strategies are considered. The selected strategies are assessed with regard to economic, ecological and population-dynamical aspects, in order to receive thereby an almost complete overview. The ecological assessment is made in form of a risk estimation, primarily qualitative estimations are made. After a short demonstration of the structure and the model configuration of SimWeed, results of selected calculations are presented.