With the granting of the Innovation Patent for the weed detector in December 2021 this has made the patent information pubicly available so now there is a clearer understanding of how this technology differs from those already in the market place or under development.
A problem with crop farming, particularly those such as wheat, barley, corn, etc., is that weeds will grow up together with the crops and present a present and future problem to the farmer. These weeds are becoming herbicide resistant, and therefore cannot easily be treated with mass herbicide application.
There is technology to deal with weeds that occur beneath the crop canopy at harvest time, and have not yet seeded, that can destroy weed seeds in the combine harvester. However, for weeds that have already seeded and for weeds that protrude up through the crop canopy there is no known solution.
These weeds present a problem. Weeds that go to seed in the crop field will deposit many seeds into the ground. These seeds can remain dormant for many years (up to 50 years in some cases). Thus, knowing the location of weeds and weed clusters is a critical first step to managing weeds that are becoming increasingly resistant to herbicides.
The present invention has been developed in light of this background to assist in detecting and locating weeds in a crop field so that the farmer can manage these weeds knowing the location in the crop field through various agronomic techniques.
