Podcasts

As you’re probably already aware, here at WeedSmart we’re big advocates of harvest weed seed control. However, getting this right starts with good harvester set-up. In this podcast, we catch up with one of our WeedSmart advocate farmers, Warwick Holding, about setting up your harvester correctly, with a focus on chaff decks. Warwick Holding presenting on his farm at Wagga WeedSmart Week 2017 We also chat with Dr Peter Boutsalis from Plant Science Consulting. He gives us a rundown on how to collect weed seeds correctly for herbicide resistance testing. Check out the pictures below of weed seeds ready for collection. Your co-hosts this week are Jessica Strauss and Peter Newman. As mentioned above, we’ve included some examples of weed seeds so you know what they should look like when they’re ready to be picked for herbicide resistance testing. Peter Boutsalis has kindly provided photos and our Communications Officer Shannen Barrett has put some graphics together so it’s easy to follow. See below. Sowthistle Barley grass Brome Wild oats Wild radish and ryegrass You can check out more information on resistance testing by reading our Bulletin post ‘Testing for herbicide susceptibility and resistance’ here.

It’s that time of year where crop topping is on the agenda. In this podcast, we catch up with WeedSmart Southern Extension Agronomist, Greg Condon about crop topping pulses and also canola and the value you can get out of it. We’ll also be talking about double knocking spray fallow and late-season weed identification. You can visit the Pulse Australia website for more information on crop topping here. Greg Condon, Grassroots Agronomy and Australian Herbicide Resistance Initiative (AHRI) southern extension agronomist, advocates crop-topping plus harvest weed seed control as an effective way to drive down annual ryegrass and wild radish numbers. We’ll also speak with AHRI researcher Roberto Busi. He’s found cross-resistance between a few of our key pre-emergent herbicides. Roberto gives us an overview of the work he’s been doing in this space. We also find out more about the new herbicide resistance testing service being offered through UWA is coordinating. You can follow Roberto Busi on Twitter here and follow the UWA Herbicide Resistance Testing service here. Wild radish populations tested with three different modes of action to identify multiple herbicide resistance. Photo: Roberto Busi Join your co-hosts Jessica Strauss and Peter Newman and take a listen now.

In the podcast this week we chat with Redekop’s Trevor Thiessen about their weed seed impact mill (featured in the Redekop video below), the Seed Control Unit, or SCU. Redekop Manufacturing is based in Canada and sells a range of crop residue management tools. You can also read more about Redekop here. https://www.weedsmart.org.au/app/uploads/2019/10/integrated-design-render.webm We also hear from Tim Ford (pictured at the top) from Feed Central. This Queensland-based company provides a buying and selling platform for hay. Tim explains how the hay market has evolved over time and some of the challenges faced today. Redekop Manufacturing’s president, Trevor Thiessen. Join your co-hosts Jessica Strauss and Peter Newman and find out more!

The theme of the podcast this week is new tools! We talk about new weed seed impact mills out of Tecfarm and also look at some new chemistry on the horizon for agriculture. Syngenta will soon be releasing a new pre-emergent herbicide called Callisto for Australian cereal growers. It has some surprisingly Australian roots, with its active ingredient stemming from the Australian bottle brush. Syngenta’s Ben Parkin joins us to talk about this. BASF is also releasing several new actives. BASF Crop Solutions WA Senior Area Sales Manager Murray McCartney talks to us about Luximax, which will be available next year. We also learn about BASF’s new group H post em, Frequency and also Voraxor, which will be available in 2021. Tecfarm Director Tom Lewis talks us through the journey so far for Tecfarm in developing and testing their weed seed impact mill too. Tecfarm’s Matt Barrett-Lennard, Neil Brandon, Tom Lewis We also have a survey at the moment on HWSC that will only take you a minute to complete. You can complete it here. You can also access the HWSC model Peter Newman talks about in this podcast here.

This week we have an array of interviews from the ground at Horsham WeedSmart Week. Join your hosts, Jessica Strauss and Peter Newman, as they take you to the event via the podcast. There are a few interview packages in this podcast, so here’s a guide in case you want to refer back to them: Tim Rethus, Farmer and BCG member Jana Dixon (Rural Directions Agronomist), Guillaume Jourdain (Bilberry CEO) Adam Cooke, Greg Swades, Richard King, Ross Berryman (mainly harvester Workshop focused Kyle (pictured above with wife Tegan and baby Ted), Ian Taylor, Billy Peddler, Dominic Garden (Farmer experiences for the whole event) Without the support of our stakeholders and our co-organiser BCG, this event would not have been possible, so thank you very much for their support. You can learn more about BCG here and our stakeholders here. We’ll be hosting WeedSmart Week 2020 in South Australia. Make sure you’re following us on social media and signed up to our blog to be the first to hear more about it. If you’d like to register your interest now, you can do so by clicking here. To view the presentations and photo gallery from our Horsham event, click here.

Join your co-hosts Jessica Strauss and Peter Newman to recap Emerald WeedSmart Week, which took place in Central Queensland on August 13-15. Jessica was on the ground at the event and spoke to attendees and presenters about their farming systems, what they saw and what they were inspired by and would potentially adapt to their farming system. Andrew and Jocie Bate from SwarmFarm This podcast provides a snapshot of the event in four interview packages: SwarmFarm’s Andrew and Jocie Bate Hannah Murphy (Radicle Seeds), Evan Shannon (agronomist at Farmacist), Simon Green (farmer) Rhys Daniels (farmer, Theresa Downs), Sam Bradford (farmer, Arcturus Downs), Matt Anning (farm manager at Cedar Park, owned by Colorada Cotton), Don Sampson (farmer) GRDC Weeds Manager, Jason Emms Thank you so much to everyone who made Emerald WeedSmart Week such a great success. If you liked what you heard, this year we have two WeedSmart Week events and there’s still time to attend our Horsham event which is kicking off on Tuesday, August 27. Get your tickets here. Jordyn, Simon Green, Matt Anning Farmacist agronomist, Evan Shannon Brad Jackson and Hannah Murphy

Australian farming treasure Ray Harrington joins us on the podcast to share his success with getting on top of weeds in his farming system. He reckons that instead of the weeds calling the shots, he’s calling the shots! WeedSmart Week in Horsham is at the end of this month too. We catch up with a local farmer, Sam Eagle (check out a short video with Sam below), to find out about his innovative approach to stock containment in his mixed farming system. He’s going to be presenting at the event and we’ll also be visiting his property. https://www.weedsmart.org.au/app/uploads/2019/08/Sam-Eagle-susceptibility-testing.mp4 Furthermore, we catch up with Dr Jack Desbiolles, who is a senior agricultural research engineer at the University of South Australia. He’s recently been featured on our Bulletin Board talking about his work in paired row sowing. He’s undertaken extensive trials investigating the benefits of increasing the space between seeds in the seedbed. Dr Jack Desbiolles says when it comes to paired-row seeding systems, the technology can be categorised into either split or integrated designs. Paired-row sowing is one of the ways to effectively achieve this and can deliver both increased yield and useful suppression of weeds. Jack gives an extensive overview of the benefits and how to adopt it. You can read the article here, but first…

Join your co-hosts Jessica Strauss and Peter Newman to learn the latest in precision ag and find out more about Emerald, the location of our first WeedSmart Week event for 2019. In this podcast, we chat with Southern Precision Director Grant Yates about shielded spraying and other innovative technology which helps with farming system efficiencies. Grant started the company as he found that the latest equipment and tools that could reduce input costs and improve efficiencies were not readily available to farmers. We also catch up with Graham Spackman about the Northern Region and some of the issues faced there. Graham is a Northern GRDC panel member and is a Director of Spackman Iker Ag Consulting. He’ll be speaking on the Forum Day at Emerald WeedSmart Week, which is now only 2 weeks away! You can get your tickets to the event here. If you’re closer to Horsham, WeedSmart Week will be happening there on August 27. Get your tickets here. We also have an excellent webinar coming up on the state of play of glyphosate. You can learn more and register here.

Emerald WeedSmart Week is less than a month away, so Northern Extension Agronomist, Paul McIntosh, guest co-hosts with Jessica Strauss to highlight some of the excellent speakers who will be presenting over the 3-day event. In this podcast, we hear from InFarm Managing Director Jerome Leray who will be presenting at WeedSmart Week. InFarm is an Agricultural Intelligence company based in Goondiwindi. The company has been recognised by Microsoft for becoming the first commercial company to receive the AI for Earth grant in Australia. The company has developed a drone to tractor fallow weed solution. It can save farmers up to 95% on herbicide and integrates with standard variable rate sprayers. It provides a solution to fallow weed spot spraying using the equipment farmers already have. We also speak with local CQ farmers, Kurt Mayne and Scott Becker about their farming systems and how WeedSmart’s Big 6 principles have shaped some of the practical changes they’ve made, including some big purchases, like the WEEDit. You can get your tickets for Emerald WeedSmart Week here.   Kurt Mayne will be presenting at WeedSmart Week in Emerald