Weed Manager, (Weed Management Support System)

The Encyclopaedia of Arable Weeds Announced

We are pleased to report that The Encyclopaedia of Arable Weeds is now available on-line and in printed form. Jointly funded by HGCA and BASF this pulls together information previously developed in this Weed Manager LINK project.

This is an essential tool for successful weed management containing:
• Full colour: photographs for identification, location map and lifecycle information
• Biology and management information

Print version: for field use containing 100 weeds
Online: identification tool and more detailed information on over 140 weeds – www.hgca.com/awe

This encyclopaedia has been produced to fill the gap that exists in currently available information and to provide users, in easy to use formats, with a better understanding of weeds, their distribution and biological characteristics together with the best agricultural practice and the impact and importance of both cultural and herbicide use.

It is not a manual on ‘how to do it’, but a source of reference based on an accumulation of research and information about the weeds, their identification and growing habits, to help the user identify problem weeds and plan their crop management.

Crop production is a competitive balance between crop and weed for light and nutrients. A weed is a plant in an undesired place. It can often grow and reproduce aggressively and/or harbour and spread pests or pathogens which infect or degrade the quality of crops. Some can cause skin irritation or are hazardous if eaten. Although many weeds have undesirable consequences they can also provide feed for birds, are attractive to look at or fulfil a key ecological role.

Understanding weeds and their biology enables more effective management. The Encyclopaedia of Arable Weeds provides an essential tool for weed management in arable rotations.

To use the on-line edition see www.hgca.com/awe. The printed version is available from HGCA (see www.hgca.com/publications or email publications@hgca.com) and BASF (www.agricentre.basf.co.uk).

We are actively exploring other routes to ensure that the value of the information generated during the Weed Manager project is made available to the farming industry.

Acknowledgement

This encyclopaedia is substantially based on Weed Manager, which was developed by ADAS, BASF, Bayer CropScience, Dow AgroSciences, DuPont, HGCA, Rothamsted Research, SAC, SRI, and Syngenta under the Sustainable Arable LINK (Government sponsor Defra); from which the vast majority of text and images are derived.

For other new crop related research see ADAS A+.