CHENEY – Standard practice for controlling weeds for many farmers is to use chemicals. But at a new company in Cheney, Kansas they simply behead them.
Killing weeds without chemicals intrigued the head of the Mid Kansas Cooperative — a full-service farm cooperative that spans four states, including Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri and Oklahoma. 
The COO of MKC announced a partnership with Greenfield Robotics, a firm that uses robots to curtail weeds in row crops. The crops include corn, cotton, sorghum, soybean and sunflowers.
Specially designed robots, or weedbots, are able to closely cut the weed, making it difficult for the plant to grow back.
Weedbots reduce chemicals and crop risk in no-till and strip till row crops. The Weedbot system is deployed post-plant and works between rows to manage pigweed, mares tail and other broadleaf weeds. This method of weed control has zero risk of weeds forming resistance.
The robots, which travel at around 3 1/2 mph, are water-resistant and weigh about 200 pounds. As they move between the crop rows, they cut down the weeds with their blades, leaving the chopped-up debris in their wake. Each robot gets down to less than 1/2 inch above the soil.
Although they are programed to remain in their row, someone is monitoring them on a computer screen at all times.
Clint Brauer, the CEO of Greenfield Robotics, started his company in 2018. His goal was to create a chemical-free, less labor intensive system to banish weeds. Currently, 10 robots can be deployed in a location at once.
“They can impact even grass weeds more than we expected,” Brauer said.
By combining forces with MKC, Brauer can put more robots on Midwestern farms. For MKC, the partnership brings state-of-the-art technology to farms, moving the company forward.
“We know that automation on the farm is continuing to grow and is continuing to expand all the time,” said MKC COO, Erik Lange. “This is one way for us to experiment with on-farm automation and with processes that could very greatly change the way that we work with our consumers, our vendors and our partners.”
The partnership will also provide both organizations the opportunity to work together on field trials for nextgen systems and continue to learn more about logistics, marketing and efficacy of their efforts.
“Basically MKC will work with Greenfield. Greenfield will continue to own the robots,” Lange said. “From an operational standpoint, MKC will help Greenfield position and deploy the robots.”
With a current membership of nearly 10,000 members, MKC specializes in grain, agronomy, energy, feed and risk management. Lange believes the weedbot can help farmers adhere to the coop’s mission of providing a safe and sustainable food supply.
“MKC wants to continue to invest in cropping methods that make our customers successful,” Lange said. “So, we’re always looking for what’s the best thing for our customers, and I think Greenfield is a good path to go down for an option.”
As featured in The Hutchinson News.
