No-Till Drill Design for Atrazine Treated Soils

A no-till cereal grain drill was designed to enable use of the herbicide atrazine at high application rates to control weeds in wheat. Modified hoe openers moved atrazine treated soil and weed seed from the row leaving a herbicide free zone in which wheat could germinate and grow. Atrazine was concentrated between the rows to control weeds. Grain yields with a spear point hoe (1868 kg/ha) and the hoe preceded by a concave disc (1745 kg/ha) were not significantly different from a glyphosate check (1810 kg/ha) for atrazine applied at 1.1 kg/ha. Adding wings to the spear point hoe to move more soil laterally improved plant stands and forage yield compared with the standard spear point hoe opener.