News summary: An agricultural trade show in central-northern France is also a showcase of robotic sowing and weeding prowess on tender beet.

The Desherb’Avenir trade show was held on May 16 and 17 in the Gâtinais region, a short distance from Pithiviers (45) in north-central France. Organized by the ITB, this event is focused on alternative solutions for weed control, especially for beets. The last Desherb’Avenir was held in 2019, so these two half-days were an opportunity to see that in four years, the mechanical weeding offer has been greatly expanded. Moreover, the weeder is no longer the only star, with a good presence of harrows in particular.

Since 2019, robots have also made their appearance in the plains and have sown and weeded their first beets. So it’s no surprise to see them featured prominently at this show. The fully automated solutions from Farmdroïd and Deleplanque, were alongside the robotic, but coupled, systems from Steketee and EcoRobotix.

Spraying has not said its last word:

If Desherb’Avenir was mainly focused on mechanical weeding during its previous editions, this year sees the return of the “good old pulvé”. In the meantime, the latter has been equipped with the latest technologies, to spray only on the row, as at Amazone, or to detect weeds to apply the product only where necessary, as at France Pulvé. This exhibition thus lives up to its name by presenting the wide range of products offered to farmers to reduce their IFT or switch to mechanical spraying.

Source: Lafranceagricole.fr