A Finnish organic cereal grower has developed a machine that uses fast-spinning electrically powered chains to pulverise weeds protruding above cereal crop canopies. The same unit also tops pastures and destroys potato haulm prior to harvest

Called the W-Cutter and designed for mounting to a tractor loader or front linkage, the concept was previewed at Agritechnica. Intrigued to learn more, we travelled north to see its maker, a company called W-Cult Oy. The brains behind the concept is Markku Weckman, who farms 140ha (plus another 120ha of woodland) on the edge of the Finnish town of Luvia, in the west of the country, just a couple of miles from the coast on the Gulf of Bothnia. Here he grows mainly cereals, oilseed rape, beans and potatoes alongside grass, which is also an important part of the rotation.