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CHAPTER 4<br />

HIDDEN MARKOV MODEL AND THEIR APPLICATIONS TO WEED<br />

COUNTS<br />

4.1 Introduction<br />

Weed management makes a significant contribution to the harvesting <strong>of</strong> crops.<br />

Controlling weeds can improve the crop yield. It is also interesting to determine the<br />

relationship among more common weeds in the field. Another main factor <strong>of</strong> weed<br />

management is to find out whether there are different patterns or distributions within the<br />

field due to physical factors such as soil types, soil moisture and other reasons. The<br />

importance <strong>of</strong> these findings leads to better weed control practices.<br />

In an agricultural survey conducted by Agriculture Canada, there were several fields<br />

considered without any treatments in Prairie Provinces. There were different kinds <strong>of</strong><br />

weeds present in these fields, and some <strong>of</strong> the most common weeds found were<br />

Stinkweed, Wild Oats, Canada Thistle, Wild Buckwheat, Perennial Sow Thistle, Wild<br />

Mustard, Green Foxtail and Dandelion. In this thesis, one field has been selected<br />

(namely field #1; note that exact site location is not available), and the two most<br />

common weed types and one less frequent weed type are selected <strong>for</strong> <strong>analysis</strong>. The most<br />

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