Combine-mounted grinding mills that pulverise any seeds ejected with the chaff are quickly becoming the must-have retrofit option for large-acre arable farmers suffering with herbicide-resistant weeds.

However, most examples – including the Seed Control Unit from Canadian firm Redekop – are power hungry, milking 70hp or more of the machine’s engine output.

This makes them unsuitable for smaller harvesters, which tend to have relatively little horsepower to spare.

But a solution is on the horizon – one that swaps mechanical obliteration for blue lights and infrared.

Video: Leicester farm trials weed seed unit on Fendt combine

Together with US firm Global Neighbor Inc (GNI), a specialist in non-chemical weed control, Redekop is developing an alternative system that requires far less power.

It will use GNI’s Direct Energy technology, which fires a high-intensity combination of blue light and mid-range infrared wavelengths at the chaff. Any seeds exposed to this will immediately lose their viability.

This saves the effort of cracking or burning material and, as a result, the 24V system is reckoned to need only a few horsepower to run – making it ideal for older, smaller combines.

However, bigger machines will probably have to stick with mechanical seed destructors, simply because of the sheer volume of material they process.

The kit will likely be mounted at the back of the sieves, but the finer details are yet to be ironed out.

Two prototypes have been built, but they are still in development, are yet to be given a name, and are unlikely to be launched until next year at the earliest.