Weeds – A System for Developing a Computer-Based Herbicide Recommendation Program

A rapid increase in the number of herbicides and herbicide mixtures registered for use in row crops has made herbicide selection diffilcult. WEEDS is a computer program that enables a weed management expert to build a list of recommended herbicides or herbicide mixtures based upon weed species, soil texture, and soil organic matter content. An example is given for soybeans. Nomenclature: Soybean, Glycine max (L.) Merr. Additional index words: Computer decision aid, weed management. INTRODUCTION The number of herbicides recommended in North Carolina for weed control has grown rapidly during the last 5 yr. For example, 76 combinations of soybean herbicides and application methods were recommended in 19843. In 1990, 136 were recommended4. Corn (Zea mays L.) and peanut (Arachis hypogaea L.) herbicide and herbicide combination recommendations total 64 and 35, respectively4. This large number of choices presents a problem for growers and extension agents attempting to identify the best herbicide for a particular weed or weed species combination. Neither group can be famiiar with the characteristics of all treatment options and the weeds controlled by each option. Soil texture and organic matter restrictions and rotational restrictions on many products add to the complexity of the task. Printed manuals have been the traditional method of conveying herbicide recommendations. Growers depend 'Received for publication June 5, 1989, and in revised form Feb. 20, 1990. Paper No. 201 of the J. Ser. of the N.C. Agric. Ext. Serv., Raleigh, NC 27695-7602. The use of trade names in this publication does not imply endorsement by the N.C. Agric. Ext. Serv. of the products named nor criticism of similar ones not mentioned. 2Assoc. Profs. and Computer Programmer, Crop Sci. Dep., N.C. State Univ., Raleigh, NC 27695-7620. k3ewis, W. M., A. C. York, H. D. Coble, and A. D. Worsham. 1984. Chemical weed control in field crops. p. 205-219 in 1984 North Carolina Agricultural Chemical Manual. N. C. Agric. Ext. Serv., Raleigh, NC 27695. 4Lewis, W. M., A. C. York, H. D. Coble, and A. D. Worsham. 1990. Chemical weed control in field crops. p. 239-250 in 1990 North Carolina Agricultural Chemical Manual. N. C. Agric. Ext. Serv., Raleigh, NC 27695. 5Abbreviations: RAM, random access memory; KB, kilobytes. 6Unix is a registered trademark of ATT 2) many growers and extension agents have difficulty identifying the best course of action from a lengthy recommendation list; and 3) recommendations cannot be ranked practically in order of effectiveness for weed complexes. Crop production has become an increasingly complex business. Growers must deal daily with difficult decisions. For the last decade, computers have been integrated into the everyday activities of many growers and could contribute to all phases of farm operations (1). Expert systems which combine all aspects of crop production into one system soon may be available (2). One of the most cited reasons growers purchase a microcomputer is to use production decision aids to increase farm profitability (3). In North Carolina, all extension offices have a personal computer for agents and growers to use. A computer program, named WEEDS, was developed to meet three objectives: 1) to provide extension weed scientists with a simple method to computerize weed recommendations; 2) to simplify for extension agents and farmers the identification of recommended herbicides and herbicide mixtures for various application methods and mixtures of weed species; and 3) to restrain the size of the computer RAM5 needed to operate the program to 384 KB5 which is the minimum RAM capacity of computers available to extension agents in North Carolina. SOFTWARE DESIGN WEEDS was developed on a Unix6 operating system using the C programming language. It was transferred to a personal computer and was compiled using a personal computer C compiler (Aztec7 version 4.10C). 380 Weed Technology. 1990. Volume 4:380-385 This content downloaded from 207.46.13.0 on Tue, 17 May 2016 06:18:54 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms