Weed Decision Support System

Making weed control decisions is often a challenging process. The broad spectrum of weeds found in many fields, combined with the many herbicides on the market, can make choosing a herbicide or tank-mixture for a particular field difficult. Another challenge is attempting to estimate the economic benefit you would receive from controlling the weeds present in a field with an herbicide tank-mixture. HADSS™ (Herbicide Application Decision Support System) is a family of weed control decision aids developed by North Carolina State University, with databases customized for different states by weed scientists from those states. This work is funded in part by NIFA Southern and North Central Regional Integrated Pest Management Grants.

These decision aids help growers, consultants, and pesticide applicators make economically sound weed control decisions for both post-emergence and soil-applied herbicides. At least 500 groups and individuals now use HADSS to aid weed management decisions on nearly 1 million acres. Herbicide use has been reduced roughly 20 percent to 30 percent on these acres. In related work, Nebraska and North Carolina State researchers teamed to lead a USDA-funded national effort to promote widespread implementation of weed management decision-aid software in coming years.

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