Making weed control decisions is often a challenging process. The broad spectrum of weeds found in many fields, combined with the many herbicides on the market, can make choosing a herbicide or tank-mixture for a particular field difficult. Another challenge is attempting to estimate the economic benefit you would receive from controlling the weeds present in a field with a herbicide or tank-mixture.
HADSS™ (Herbicide Application Decision Support System) is a family of weed control decision aids developed by North Carolina State University, with databases customized for different states by weed scientists from those states. These decision aids have been designed to assist growers, consultants, and pesticide applicators in making economically sound weed control decisions for both postemergence and soil-applied herbicides. Data from university trials and the experience of weed scientists from several universities have been built into the decision making process of the HADSS™ model.
The current North Carolina version of HADSS™ contains over 80,000 efficacy values for nearly 400 postemergence herbicide treatments (containing one or more of 100 herbicides) against 87 weed species in four crops. It includes 25,000 efficacy values for over 300 soil-applied treatments for soybean and corn crops.
A new release is available each year, incorporating the results of the most recent research. To view the current list of supported states and crops, see the "Supported Crops" page.
HADSS™ decision aids provide valuable information that can be used for making weed control decisions, such as estimates of the yield loss a weed could cause, and the economic return from controlling weeds... information that can be difficult to estimate otherwise. They also provide a large database of herbicide efficacy information in an easy to access format.
However, HADSS™ decision aids do not replace the normal decision-making process you use.
Always consider the recommendations based on your previous experience. Many herbicide labels have specific warnings and requirements that are impossible to include in HADSS™ for all circumstances, so always read and follow the product label.
HADSS™ Family
There are 3 HADSS™ decision aid tools. Click the name to obtain more information:
| HADSS™ | for Desktop PC |
| Pocket HERB™ | for PocketPC (Handheld) |
| WebHADSS™ | Interactive Online (free) |
User Input
HADSS™ makes herbicide recommendations based on user supplied information:
- Weed species
- Estimated number of weeds
- Approximate size of weeds
- Soil moisture
- Soil type
- Crop height
- Crop variety
- Estimated weed-free yield
- Estimated crop selling price
Report Generation
- Damage Estimates: lists estimated bushels lost per acre, and
resulting economic loss, if no treatment is applied.
- Herbicide Recommendations: ranks treatments based on economic
return. Optionally, treatments can be ranked based on other
criteria such as yield loss remaining after treatment, or treatment
cost per acre.
- Weed Comparison: compares treatments based on the number of weeds remaining
after applying the treatment.
- Treatment Details: lists information such as estimated yield loss
after treatment, restrictions on use, amount of herbicide required for a
field, and herbicide cost per field.