Businessman Jim Peters has turned dogs’ highly sensitive sense of smell to the problem of invasive weeds, says Farm Journal. “Dogs can find the much smaller weeds before they pollinate and spread,” Peters told the magazine.
He uses two dogs for the work: Charlie, a border collie-blue heeler mix, and Jojo, a red heeler mix. “They’re starting in Iowa with lespedeza weeds and training with more as counties request it. Peters plans to focus on two or three different weed types this year and might add more in 2017,” says Farm Journal. “Currently, the dogs are finding weeds for conservation purposes, but [Peters] can see a place for it in production agriculture.”