Impacts of geese on weed communities in corn production systems and associated economic benefits

•We evaluated three corn (Zea mays) production methods: raising geese in corn fields; conventional corn production with weed management; and corn fields without weed management.•The first of these (i.e. raising geese) minimized herbicide application, maintained higher weed diversity, and results in a greater overall economic benefit compared to the other two methods.•Raising geese in corn fields should be considered more widely for sustainable crop production.

Weed pests directly impact crop quality and yield. We compared three different treatments on weed diversity and structure, and assessed the economic benefits of each on corn (Zea mays) production. The treatments included: raising geese in corn fields (hereinafter referred to as RGICF), conventional corn production with weed management (CCP) and corn fields without weed management (CK). A Shannon-Wiener diversity index and richness indicated that fields with RGICF and CK had higher weed diversity than CCP fields at early growth stages (60 and 90 days after planting, hereinafter referred to as d.a.p.), but low evenness. In RGICF fields the dominance of the major weed species populations sharply decreased because of geese feeding and trampling activity. As a consequence, weed population abundances were more evenly distributed and the evenness index, richness, and Shannon-Wiener index differed from CK and CCP treatments at 120 d.a.p. The RGICF treatment resulted in a yield reduction of corn. This loss, however, was compensated by the economic gains obtained from geese production and RGICF production without herbicide application should be considered as a production approach for sustainable agriculture operations.