Podcasts

We’ll be visiting Adrian’s farm as part of Esperance WeedSmart Week, so we’ll find out more about that and get a weed focused update for his region.
WeedSmart Week
WeedSmart Week Esperance is 17-19 of August. To find out more about this event and to buy tickets, click here.

We feature farmer case studies from each of our mill partners, including HSD, Redekop and Seed Terminator.
The farmers we hear from are Steve Lord (Goomalling, WA – Redekop); Tyson Schutz, who is pictured above with Dad Mick (Grass Patch, WA – Seed Terminator); and Jon Beasley (Franklin River, WA – HSD).

Farmer, Steve Lord, who has a Redekop mill.

We also be hearing from Kondinin Group’s Ben White who provides us with a technical overview and details the latest updates on this technology.
WeedSmart Week
This year, our annual flagship event will be held in Esperance, WA from the 17th to the 19th of August 2021. WeedSmart Week is designed to engage growers and advisors on WeedSmart’s Big 6 messages. You can get your tickets here.
New content
Make sure you check out our latest Ask an Expert. This month Dr Chris Preston answers the question “How does ryegrass adapt so readily to farming practices and environmental changes?”
Don’t forget to follow us on Twitter and Facebook and also sign-up for our monthly blog. You can also subscribe to the WeedSmart Whip Around, so you never miss any of our content.
Related content
We mentioned on the podcast that Tyson Schutz’s Dad, Mick Schutz, featured in a GRDC publication entitled “Investigating the harvest weed seed control tools chaff lining and chafftramlining (chaffdeck) in the Esperance area”. Check that out here.

In this edition of the Regional Update, we’re heading to the Southern Region and catching up with Nutrien Agronomist, James Challis. James is based in Echuca in Victoria.

WeedSmart Southern Extension Agronomist, Chris Davey has great practical tips on Group Gs today.
AHRI’s Dr Mike Ashworth covers the GRDC invested research he’s been leading in the Agronomy space, with some practical information on post-emergent UAN placement recommendations.
And finally, the problem of fence line weeds isn’t going away, so in the spirit of the WeedSmart Big 6, our Northern Extension Agronomist Paul McIntosh has a novel solution to plant lucerne to compete with weeds in non-cropped areas.
Related webinars
Mark Congreve Webinar on Group Gs
Chris Preston Webinar on Group Gs
New content
Our next Regional Update will come out next Monday and we’ll be hearing Nutrien Agronomist James Challis from the Southern Region.
If you haven’t listened to our latest update yet, we caught up with Tim Bartimote from NSW Local Land Services who talked about a GRDC invested projected on chaff decks.
Ask an Expert
This month Mark Congreve joins us to answer the questions “What impact does dry seeding have on pre-emergent herbicide efficacy?” Check it out here.
WeedSmart Review
In this edition we look at research from scientists from the Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development, Western Australia. They’ve recently published the results from long-term studies measuring the impact of ameliorating soil acidity on the growth of annual ryegrass in wheat.
The key finding was that applying and incorporating lime is the best way to increase the pH of acidic soils, but it usually takes several years before a surface lime application has a measurable effect on soil pH at depth.
Incorporation is the best way to speed up the process and also releases other soil nutrients to boost crop growth. I’ll link this article in the podcast notes!
Check it out here.

Over the last two years, Tim has been working on a chaff decking paddock demonstration project which has GRDC investment.
Tim provides us with an overview of what this project is all about and gives us a regional update for his region.
Resources
Video on chaff deck project 
GRDC IWM handbook
Weed management options during harvest article

WeedSmart Southern Extension Agronomist, Greg Condon, who is a big advocate of chaff decks, joins us to give us some answers!
We also hear from Northern Region grower, Chris Berry. He has had a chaff deck for a number of years and while he likes the concept of the mill, is sticking with the chaff deck for now.
Effects on paddock from using a chaff deck. Photos supplied by podcast guest, Chris Berry.
Regional Update
Our next Regional Update will come out next Monday and we’ll be hearing from Norther Region expert, Tim Bartimote. Tim is a Senior Land Services Officer in the Cropping division for NSW Central West Local Land Services.
Over the last two years, Tim has been working on a chaff decking paddock demonstration project which has GRDC investment.
New Content
We’ve got great content on the WeedSmart website for you to check!
Make sure you check out our latest Ask an Expert. It looks at how you can maximise grass weed control using hybrid canola. EPAG Research agronomist, Andrew Ware provides the answers. Read it here.
Also, don’t miss our latest Case Study on the Single family, based in Coonamble, NSW.
We also hosted a webinar last week with WeedSmart Southern Extension Agronomist Chris Davey & ICAN’s Mark Congreve. They looked at considerations for pre-emergent herbicides with dry sowing.
You can watch it here.
 

 
Western Australia Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development research officer Catherine Borger and project participant, Ben Whisson from Consult Ag (pictured above) have some interesting preliminary results to share with us.
DPIRD’s Catherine Borger
Barley Project
Learn more about the project described in the podcast here.
Weed Seed Wizard
Check out the Weed Seed Wizard tool here.
Barley Grass RIM
Barley Grass RIM came about through the GRDC-funded ‘Maintaining profitable farming systems with retained stubble’ initiative that included an objective of promoting pro-active weed management strategies.
Barley grass has become a critical ‘driver’ weed in several grain growing districts under no-till systems and in some areas such as Upper Eyre Peninsula, with barley grass also having a big influence on the cropping system.
Using the RIM approach to testing the best IWM strategies has been valuable for ryegrass management over a long period, so it was an obvious step to provide agronomists, farmers and researchers with a RIM tool for these other major grass weeds.
You can access the Barley Grass RIM tool here. You can learn more about both the Barley and Brome modelling tools here as well.

 
Back in February and March of 2020 Tim had some summer rain and decided to look at the weeds not the temperature. If the weeds weren’t moisture stressed he kept spraying all day even when it was hot. He had some great results which we’ll get into in this podcast.
We’ll also be hearing from Nufarm’s André Sabeeney and Mitch Allen about their new product Terrad’or.
Terrad’or is a new Group G herbicide from Nufarm. This product is best partnered with glyphosate as a knockdown spike or mixed with paraquat for double knock application.
Spray Application Manual
The GRDC has published an excellent spraying manual you can access.
This Spray Application GrowNotes™ manual provides information on how various spraying systems and components work, along with those factors that the operator should consider to ensure the sprayer is operating to its full potential.
This manual focuses on issues that will assist in maintaining the accuracy of the sprayer output while improving the efficiency and safety of spraying operations. It contains many useful tips for your spray operations.
The manual includes information on sprayer set-up, including self-propelled sprayers, new tools for determining sprayer outputs, suggestions for assessing spray coverage in the field, improving droplet capture by the target, drift-reducing equipment and techniques, the effects of adjuvant and nozzle type on drift potential, and surface temperature inversion research.
Get the details here.
Regional Update
Our next Regional Update will come out next Monday and is with Research Officer Catherine Borger from the Department of Agriculture and Food Western Australia.
You can ensure you don’t miss it by subscribing to the podcast on your app of choice.
New content
Our latest Ask an Expert is “How can I maximise grass weed control using hybrid canola?”
EPAG Research agronomist, Andrew Ware answers the question and says the results of six years of trial work across the southern growing region with GRDC investment has demonstrated how important crop nutrition and time of sowing are for maximising canola vigour and yield.
Read it here.
Also, don’t miss our latest Case Study on Single family, Coonamble NSW. Tony and Sharon Single farm with Tony’s parents John and Mary, south east of Coonamble in northern NSW with views of the Warrumbungle Range.
Across the 4500 ha cropping area at ‘Narratigah’, the weed numbers are low as a result of the Single’s ‘farming moisture’ philosophy, which involves planting whenever there is sufficient subsoil moisture to establish a competitive crop on their heavy clay soils.
Read it here.

With many parts of South Australia experiencing a dry start, independent Agronomist, Craig Davis talks to us about the challenges with controlling weeds and volunteer crops in his patch.