Experts from Bosch, BASF Digital Farming, Chafer Machinery and Rothamsted Research have reached midway in a three-year project to develop use of precision farming technology and AI to reduce persistent black-grass in UK farms.

A weed that inhibits growth of wheat crops, black-grass reduces yield and damages farm productivity. It is responsible for up to 800,000 tons of UK wheat losses a year, with economic losses of around £400 million.

Bosch is the lead partner in the research and development (R&D) project consortium, which comprises experts from BASF Digital Farming, Chafer Machinery, and Rothamsted Research. They have been awarded a grant of £1,452,614 for the three-year project from DEFRA and Innovate UK, the UK’s innovation agency, under the Farming Innovation Programme – Small R&D Partnership Projects.

The consortium is bringing together academia (Rothamsted) and Bosch, BASF and Chafer to design a bespoke solution to eliminate the problem of black-grass for UK farmers.

The project enables UK SME Chafer to use the Bosch/BASF ‘ONE SMART SPRAY’ precision weed management technology to develop, build and evaluate a camera-equipped self-propelled sprayer for black-grass mapping and precision patch- or spot-spraying.

The AI used to identify weeds and the ability to generate precise weed maps allows Rothamsted to define appropriate agronomic measures and variable rate herbicide applications, using the agronomic logic and intelligence of BASF Digital Farming’s xarvio Digital Farming Solutions crop optimisation platform.

The team is training a Bosch AI model to recognise black-grass in a greenhouse environment. It is close to completing phase 1 development of a prototype for use in the fields.

Data capture has been enhanced by installing cameras on a sprayer. This can capture high quality images of weed growth as it moves through the crops.

Image labelling is done by blackgrass experts from Rothamsted Research institute.

As the project progresses, weekly scanning takes place across key growing seasons and the field data generated is used to develop granular black-grass maps. Agronomic recommendations then focus on the development of an integrated weed management plan across the farm.

It began with 12 cameras and 24 lights, which were used in the initial stages of the project on a small section of the boom as the team established the optimum set-up of lights and cameras. This has now been defined and replicated with 30 cameras and 60 lights that stretch across the full width of the boom.

Bharath Jayakumar, Innovation Lead at Bosch UK, said: “In the UK, black-grass is seen as one of the biggest issues for farmers. If we are able to address the black-grass challenge, it will be beneficial to the environment, our ecosystem, the soil, the crops – and also to all of us as end users of the product.

“We’re already seeing first-hand the possibilities with this project, proving that our sensor, software and AI technology can make a difference for UK farmers and will help them to target black-grass better in their fields. In future we can also look at other economically important grassweeds such as Ryegrass.”