A Decision Support System for Mechanical Weed Control in Malting Barley

An overview of a decision support system for growing malting barley without use of pesticides is given. One module in this system is the decision support system for mechanical weed control in malting barley. The system is constructed as a Bayesian network. The Bayesian network is used because it gives the possibility to include information on uncertainty in an easily understandable form. The module for weed control describes the relative reduction on the yield and the dry weight of weeds remaining in the field under a variety of conditions. The most important conditions included in the model are the amount of weeds in the spring, different methods of mechanical weed control, the row distance and the application method of nitrogen.