We head to the Western Region in this episode and catch up with Today WA farmer, Alex Davies. Alex is based in York and has a continuous cropping farming system and also runs sheep.
Alex also shares with us his experience about how the last three seasons have gone with having a Harrington Seed Destructor and the positive impact it has had on helping in reducing weed burdens on his farm.
You can follow Alex on Twitter here.

It’s hard to believe that harvest is just around the corner! In light of this fast approaching reality, we wanted to talk about crop topping and spray topping.
Each of our WeedSmart Extension Agronomists provide a rundown on what to look out for in their cropping regions in regards to crop topping, swathing and desiccation.
WeedSmart Southern Extension Agronomist Greg Condon guest co-hosts for this podcast.

Paul McIntosh, Northern Region: crop topping or swathing/windrowing winter pulses, e.g. faba beans – jump to listen at 18:00
Jana Dixon, High Rainfall Zone:  crop topping barley and spray topping pastures – jump to listen at 30:00
Chris Davey – desiccation and crop topping pulses – jump to listen at 41:30
Greg Condon – crop topping canola – jump to listen at 55:00

Dr Chris Preston, University of Adelaide, also joins us to explain the mode of action classification system changes from a letters system to numbers system and what it’ll mean for growers.
Dr Chris Preston explains the changes to MoA classification for herbicides in Australia from letters to numbers.
Helpful links

GRDC Pre-Harvest Herbicide Use Fact Sheet
Global Herbicide Classification Look-Up
Recent WeedSmart Content

News Article: Chaff carts were made for feeding livestock
Ask an Expert Article: How can I set up my summer crops to help manage weeds?  Our expert is Belinda Chase, who is an Agronomist with Dalby Rural Supplies
Webinar recording: Mixed farming – does it really help control resistant weeds? Greg Condon hosts and Agronomist Craig Drum is our guest presenter.

Bonus
I promised a holiday picture of sea lions, and I’m going to deliver. Here’s a playful sea lion who hung out with me when I was snorkelling in Jurien Bay.
Sweet sea lion in Jurien Bay (Jessica Strauss).

In this webinar, WeedSmart Southern extension agronomist Greg Condon looks at the mixed farming system and explains how the Big 6 principles encourage diverse weed management. Greg focuses on solutions in the medium rainfall zone whilst grower and agronomist Craig Drum focuses on the high rainfall zone.
Both Greg and Craig share real-life examples of clients who successfully controlled resistant weeds by using a mixed farming system, whilst remaining profitable.
Topics covered include:

What the WeedSmart Big 6 looks like in a mixed farming system
How to be profitable whilst reducing the seedbank of resistant weeds
Harvest Weed Seed Control opportunities: baled chaff, chafflines
4 examples of clients who successfully controlled their resistant weeds using mixed farming

Angus Dalgliesh, grower and agronomist with Nutrien Ag Solutions, joins us on the Regional Update today.
Angus recently presented on our webinar What’s next in the North for weed control?
Today he provides an update on what to be looking out for with weeds at the moment and into the near future.

On this edition of the podcast, we’re focusing on controlling herbicide resistant ryegrass.
We’ll hear from grower Murray Scholz (pictured above), who is based in Culcairn, NSW. Murray and wife Emma are having a real win with grazing to keep ryegrass at bay.
We’ll also be hearing from University of Adelaide’s Dr Peter Boutsalis. Peter will provide an update on clethodim resistance and share some practical tips on how to keep on top of ryegrass.
Dr Peter Boutsalis
Resources
GRDC Adjuvant Guide (Peter Boutsalis recommended on the podcast)
New WeedSmart Content
Article: Chaff carts were made for feeding livestock
Ask an Expert: How can I set up my summer crops to help manage weeds?
Video: Rod Birch on how the Big 6 is keeping weeds at bay at Catalina Farms
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Catalina Farms is approximately 13,000 ha of 100% cropping, with 65% wheat, with the other 35% comprising of 20% canola and 15% lupins. The longterm rainfall is about 330ml per year and around 250-280ml of growing season rainfall.
Taking on a new property usually has its challenges, but there can be upsides too. Some of the challenges at Koobabbie were related to the fact it had been a livestock property and cropping machinery had never having been run through it. However, Rod explained that they have had some great news about the herbicides they are able to use.
Through the University of Western Australia’s resistance testing service, run by Dr Roberto Busi at AHRI, they found out some older chemistries were still effective, which was a pleasant surprise. Daniel Birch explains below in the Regional Update Podcast what they found out and how they used this information in their planning.

Video breakdown

1:10 Crop rotations – Rod’s favourite rotation is Lupins – wheat – canola – wheat. It provides a lot of diversity for Modes of Action, as well as allows for nitrogen to go back into the soil through the lupin phase.
2:10 Crop Competition – the Birches are big fans of crop competition and it’s an essential part of their approach to controlling weeds.
3:00 Double knock – conditions haven’t been suitable for a double knock since 2016, but when the opportunity arises, it’s an important tool.
4:21 Mix and rotate herbicides – the crop rotations used at Catalina allow for really diverse chemical groups to be used, which is a great tactic to keep resistance at bay.
5:52 Stopping weed seed set – the Birches are trying to eliminate as many weeds in the crop as possible. Crop topping is a tool that they employ, as well as late spraying where necessary.
6:49 Harvest weed seed control – seed destruction is on the horizon at Catalina, but logistically has been a bit tricky.
7:21 Acquiring Koobabbie – it has been exciting for the Birches to be able to introduce more diverse rotations. They’ve been able to use Modes of Action which have never been used before.
9:48 Soil amelioration  – liming has been a really beneficial tool for Catalina Farms. They also put out pot ash and gypsum. Deep ripping has also been a great tool to remove the compaction layer.
11:29 Big 6 benefits  – controlling weeds is such an important strategy at Catalina Farms. Rod Birch said “We’ll never have a ceasefire on the war on weeds!”.

We’ve had a bit of a break from the Regional Update as we were in Esperance for WeedSmart Week – but we’re back! This week we’re heading to the western region.
We hear from farmer Daniel Birch who is based near Coorow in Western Australia’s mid-west. Daniel recently took part in a resistance survey conducted by Australian Herbicide Resistance Initiative Researcher, Dr Roberto Busi. I caught up with Dan at the resistance workshop Roberto held in Dalwallinu a few weeks ago.
Dan explains what prompted him to get involved and how the results influenced his decision making on his farm.

List of videos

Interviews with the Esperance Pioneers. Chair: Lisa Mayer, interviewing Neil Wandel & Theo Oorschot
Rotating buys you Time, mixing buys you shots
Efficacious use of the new pre-ems, Brent Pritchard
Delivering regionally focused research
Crop competition in wheat and canola, Hugh Beckie
Summer weed control
Strategies for control of ryegrass, marshmallow, fleabane, portulaca, Greg Warren
Farmer Experience
Rotations to stop seed set and preserve chemistry, Tom Longmire
Soil Amelioration, Tom Edwards
Crop competition: Reduced row spacing, higher seeding rates, east-west sowing, precision seed placement & competitive varieties, Theo Oorschot
Farmer Experience – Utilising crop competition strategies and the Big 6, Mic Fels
Weed control – farmer systems discussion panel – Chair: Peter Newman, with Mark Wandel and Laura Bennett
What’s next in spray technology? Andrew Messina
What’s next in spray technology 2? Guillaume Jourdain
Innovation Panel – Chair: Ben White, with Guillaume Jourdain, Andrew Messina
Stacking the Big 6 in farming systems in WA presented by Greg Condon, with Peter Newman

WeedSmart Week Esperance was a great success, so in this episode we provide a recap on how it went.
We hear from growers on the day and also our machinery day host, Ben White from Kondinin Group.
Ben White, Kondinin (Photo: Melissa Powell, courtesy GRDC)
The growers in the podcast are pictured above and include Brett South, Phil McDonald, Tom Longmire, and Kynan Brooks.
We also hear from Sean Roberts from Syngenta on their new sorghum seed safener Epivio C.
Syngenta’s Sean Roberts
New content

WeedSmart Week Forum Video Recordings
Throwing a wide net over mobile weeds
Chaff carts were made for feeding livestock

Our Northern Extension Agronomist, Paul McIntosh joins us for this Regional Update for the north. He gives a good wrap on what to be thinking about in the region. He also gives an overview of the important weed control topics covered in our latest webinar.
This episode is also a bit special, as it’s our 150th episode!
Webinar
Check out our latest webinar, “What’s next in the North for weed control?” here.
WeedSmart Week
Have you got your tickets for WeedSmart Week in Esperance yet? It’s next week! Get them here.

On this edition of the podcast, we’re providing a preview on our WeedSmart Week in Esperance event, which is now only two weeks away!
We hear from Beaumont farmers, Phil Longmire, and son Tom. Tom will be presenting at WeedSmart Week, providing a farmer experience on the forum day.
Phil, Bindy and Tom Longmire run a family farming business based in Beaumont, 110 km ENE of Esperance in a 425-450mm rainfall zone.
Soil amelioration and boundary mapping are just some of the approaches which have really helped them win the war against weeds.
We also  catch up with Andrew Messina. Late last year we caught up with Andrew about the trials for Bilberry’s spot spraying technology which took place on his farm. He is going to give us an update and a preview of what he’s going to share on the Innovation Panel at WeedSmart Week Esperance.
News
We’ve got a new article on advances made in weed recognition technologies. In this article we look at how blanket spraying of herbicides in low weed density situations could become a thing of the past in Australia as new weed recognition technologies enable site-specific weed control in-crop. Dr Michael Walsh from University of Sydney provides comment. Read it here.
You can also check out our latest webinar recording ‘What’s next in the North for weed control?’
Peter McKenzie, agronomist with Agricultural Consulting & Extension Services, and Angus Dalgliesh, grower and agronomist with Nutrien Ag Solutions, join WeedSmart Northern Extension agronomist Paul McIntosh to discuss some of the weed challenges their clients have been experiencing in the North, and some of the weed management tactics they’ve been using to deal with these challenges.
WeedSmart Week 
We’ve got a great program lined up for Esperance WeedSmart Week. This event really is about farmers talking to farmers, as we’ve heard from our guests today and at the event, we really get to explore that in more detail.
The 3-day program consists of a Forum Day at the Esperance Civic Centre with day 2 and 3 consisting of farm visits in the Esperance region to see how forward-thinking growers are implementing the WeedSmart Big 6 tactics to minimise the impact of herbicide resistance on their businesses.
You can get your tickets here.

Angus’ presentation focuses on the current practices for weed control in Queensland, highlighting the need for an integrated approach to weed control in order to preserve existing herbicides.
Topics covered include:

Knockdown strategies
Residual chemistry – In-crop and fallow
In-crop herbicides
Problem weeds moving forward

Peter discussed some of the tactics currently used for weed management in the Liverpool Plains of Northern NSW, and what the future might hold.
Topics covered include:

Current levels of resistance/tolerance in summer and winter weeds
Fallow management
Chipping
Crop competition
Farm hygiene
Rotation planning/fixed rotations
Chaff chutes
Harvest weed seed control
Green-on-green technology and GPS systems