Inspirational ideas: Co-designing measures for grass weed control in arable systems

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Geographical scope	European Union Ireland
Keywords	conservation agriculture crop rotation non-chemical weed control tillage knowledge exchange operational group cover crop

This inspirational idea is also available in a Slovak version.

Translation courtesy of the National Rural Network Slovakia. Read more EIP-AGRI inspirational ideas in Slovak on the NRN website.

Conservation agriculture (CA) can improve sustainability and labour efficiency, and reduce production costs. However, many Irish farmers have been reluctant to adopt CA techniques because they can cause a rapid spread of grass weeds, especially in a wetter climate (with wetter soils).

To show the effectiveness of CA methods, an Irish Operational Group has set up a network of farmers, researchers, advisers and industry to co-design the best grass weed control measures to use in these systems.

Project leader Michael Hennessy (Head of Crops Knowledge Transfer, Teagasc): "We let farmers see first-hand how problematic grass weeds can be controlled sustainably in different cropping systems."