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Australian technology destroys weed seeds

A University of Missouri extension weed scientist covered his team’s research on a new weed seed destroying technology at the MU Crop Management Conference in Columbia, Missouri.

Kevin Bradley spoke on weed management and his team’s research on the Australian seed terminator, a machine that is attached to the back of a combines and crushes water hemp and other weed seeds into a fine powder.

 “I think it’s a tool,” Bradly said. “A tool that we’ve got to evaluate some more before maybe we have adoption of it. But it is a tool that could potentially keep seed from going into the soil, which is kind of half our battle.”

Bradley’s team has conducted tests on both conventional and organic farming operations. He said while this new product could be “more readily of an answer” for organic farmers, it could provide support to conventional farming operations too.

He said the seed terminator does drain some horsepower from the combine.

Bradley said the cost of a seed terminator is estimated between $70,000 and $90,000. He said a part of his team’s research moving forward will be on evaluating cost effectiveness of the product.

Kevin Bradley Interview

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