management

May 31, 2019

Chickpea vs annual ryegrass – shaking off the handicap

Chickpeas are short and annual ryegrass takes advantage!

At 5’2″, Jonte Hall is pretty short by everyday standards, let alone by Harlem Globetrotter standards. Nicknamed ‘Too Tall’, recently-retired guard Jonte is the smallest player to wear the Globetrotter’s jersey since the team was founded in 1926.

Globetrotter veteran Herbert ‘Flight Time’ Lang, a more conventional-sized 6-foot-3 forward, is quoted as saying: “Too Tall is proof that if you stay focused, act positive and take advantage of opportunities, good things can happen.”

So, how can chickpea play to its strengths & win?

May 8, 2019

Twenty five years of testing annual ryegrass resistance – it’s a numbers game

Charles Sturt University has sown, sprayed and counted annual ryegrass from around 12 million seeds submitted from more than 5000 samples sent in from across Australia since it started testing for herbicide resistance in 1991…and that’s just ryegrass. Mind numbing stuff. But more than 5000 ryegrass samples? Most tested to five or six herbicides? Think about the value of that information! Dr John Broster and Professor Jim Pratley from CSU have analysed the data from ryegrass samples sent to the testing service over the 25 year period from 1991 to 2015.

March 29, 2019

What doesn’t kill you, makes you stronger

Experiencing hardship is often the best way to learn the big lessons of life. Heartbreak, financial difficulty, hunger and hard manual labour are often times great motivators and they build resilience in those individuals that are not crushed by them.But, like banging your head against a brick wall, it is good when it stops! Taking a person who has experienced hardship and giving them an opportunity or access to resources will often result in great success. There are many examples where tenacity and grit have underpinned the success of social reformers, sportspersons, businesspeople and performers, and even every-day people in their every-day lives.  Researchers Gulshan Mahajan, Amar Matloob, Barbara George-Jaeggli, Michael Walsh and Bhagirath Chauhan have studied this same phenomenon in an emerging weed in the northern grains region – African turnipweed.

March 6, 2019

Pre-emergent herbicides in stubble – strike or foul?

Ever tried walking out onto a 10-pin bowling alley? It’s generally not pretty, often resulting in a rapid and undignified descent to ground level…But that’s just what we need to get pre-emergent herbicides to slide off stubble and into the soil, which can be difficult in higher residue systems. Rainfall is obviously a key driver in leaching herbicides from stubble before they dissipate, but as we all know rain can be an unpredictable beast. Fortunately, research has shown that some pre-emergent herbicides require far less rainfall to move off stubble and into the soil where they can control germinating weeds. 

December 3, 2018

The significant weed science research stories of 2018

Written by: Jessica Strauss, Peter Newman, Cindy Benjamin, Kirrily Condon  It’s been a big year for AHRI. Former AHRI Director, Stephen Powles retired from the position…

November 22, 2018

Ryegrass seed set control in canola – timing is everything

Stopping ryegrass seed set pre-harvest in canola is all about timing. Sometimes the timing window lines up, other times it does not. Glen Riethmuller, DPIRD Merredin has a knack for choosing the most difficult, most labour intensive research trials to undertake. Between 2010 and 2013 he, along with Abul Hashem and Catherine Borger investigated ryegrass seed set control pre-harvest in canola. They investigated the practice of spraying under the swather as canola is windrowed for harvest compared to crop topping (desiccation) spraying over the top of the canola.

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!

September 28, 2018

Are ‘pre-ems and crop competition’ the ‘wine and cheese’ of weed control in canola?

Wine and cheese. Strawberries and cream. Crop competition and pre-emergent herbicides.

Ok so the last one doesn’t quite have the same ring about it but they really do go together nicely. Combining a competitive canola variety with pre-emergent herbicides has proven to be an effective strategy for reducing annual ryegrass seed set.

Recent trials showed that with effective pre-emergent herbicides, a competitive hybrid canola variety can reduce ryegrass seed set by 50% compared with a less competitive open-pollinated (OP) variety.

That’s impressive. But should we tar all OP varieties with the same brush?

August 14, 2018

Chaff lining…too good to be true?

How often do we hear comments like “you get what you pay for” or “it’s too good to be true”? Well, chaff lining just may be the exception to those comments.
Chaff lining has been on a rapid rise to glory in the Harvest Weed Seed Control (HWSC) scene over the past two seasons. A survey of WeedSmart subscribers showed the percentage of growers using chaff lining increased from 6% in 2016 to 26% in 2017. So, at $6.40/ha, do you get what you pay for? Is it too good to be true?

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!