May 16, 2024
Early shedding wild radish
Written by: Peter Newman The best way to avoid things that make you fat is to stay away from scales, photos and mirrors. And, if…
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AHRI Insight
HWSC
April 8, 2024
Can wild radish evade HWSC?
Written by: Peter Newman Can wild radish evade HWSC? Every time I have given a presentation about harvest weed seed control (HWSC), without fail the…
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July 2, 2021
Early flowering radish and HWSC
I was on a trip a couple of years ago with Ray Harrington talking all things harvest weed seed control (HWSC) to groups of…
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AHRI Insight
September 19, 2019
What’s the cost of harvest weed seed control for YOU?
The ad in the paper that reads “Horse, free to a good home” seems to be a good deal at first, but what is the true cost of owning a horse? Roughly similar to running a Lamborghini as I understand!
The ‘do it yourself’ narrow windrow burning chute seems cheap at the time, but what is the true cost?
It depends…
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AHRI Insight
November 5, 2018
Behind every successful HWSC approach is crop competition
Harvest weed seed control (HWSC) is often described as the holy grail of weed management, but we all know how the saying “Behind every successful person…” ends. There’re usually more factors at play than just the individual, whether that be lots of coffee or a great support team. The same goes for HWSC.
Research by Michael Walsh from the University of Sydney and John Broster from Charles Sturt University has shown that crop competition plays an important support role in the success of harvest weed seed control. Click through to learn more!
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AHRI Insight
June 29, 2018
Spoiled rotten – the sequel
Four years ago, we suggested in AHRI insight that farmers were spoiled for choice with five harvest weed seed control tools to choose from with a sixth in development. Well, a lot has happened since then. We now have seven harvest weed seed control tools to choose from, so if farmers were spoiled for choice in 2014 they are absolutely spoiled rotten now!
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AHRI Insight
June 11, 2018
AHRI insight – the 100 is up!
We’re undecided whether we should picture the AHRI communication team cutting through a massive banner as we run onto the ground or raising our bats in the air at the MCG after a long day in the middle. It’s been a long innings and is one that we have enjoyed immensely.
To celebrate the 100th AHRI insight we’re reflecting on what have been the big stories that got you excited and made the biggest impact.
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AHRI Insight
February 19, 2018
iHSD – encouraging research despite challenges during 2017 harvest
It would be remiss of us to talk about the latest integrated Harrington Seed Destructor (iHSD) research without acknowledging the challenges with this new machinery…
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AHRI Insight
July 13, 2017
Harvest weed seed control is now mainstream
Australians invented the lawn mower, rotary clothes hoists, plastic bank notes, WiFi, the electric drill, and five of the six harvest weed seed control (HWSC) techniques. And while the Canadians invented the chaff cart (to feed livestock) it was Australian farmers and researchers who started using it for HWSC. So we’re going to claim HWSC as a true blue Aussie invention too! We are the inventors of some of the key tools of HWSC and a recent GRDC grower survey has shown that we are by far the world leaders in the adoption of these practices.
Not so long ago harvest weed seed control (HWSC) was only used by a minority of early adopting grain growers, now it has gone mainstream and pretty soon just about everyone will be doing it.
Every few years GRDC fund a large grower practices telephone survey. The most recent survey was conducted by CSIRO in 2014, and they collaborated with Michael Walsh who at the time managed the HWSC program at AHRI (now at University of Sydney) to design the HWSC questions. Michael has now reported on the results in a recent scientific publication.
The survey revealed 43% of Australian grain growers are currently practising HWSC and this is set to double within the next five years. Narrow windrow burning is currently the most commonly used practice, with 30% of growers adopting this approach. While its popularity is booming now and probably will stay that way for the next five years, Michael says it’s unlikely to remain the frontrunner in the future. There are some new kids on the HWSC block that are being taken up by Australian grain growers, namely chaff tramlining and the integrated Harrington Seed Destructor (iHSD).
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AHRI Insight
June 20, 2017
Why thirsty weeds are hard to kill
Unfortunately, large parts of Western Australia, South Australia and Queensland are as dry as a London newspaper! This edition of AHRI insight looks to address the issue of spraying stressed weeds. We had to go back to 1995 to find some relevant research, but it was worth it. The GRDC funded research conducted by Dave Minkey and John Moore at DAFWA in the 90s is pure gold! In a dry year, we’re often faced with the whole kit and caboodle – moisture stressed weeds, high temperatures, low relative humidity and long durations between rainfall events.
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AHRI Insight
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