Setting up harvesters to capture weed seed in the chaff

Getting weed seeds into the chaff fraction

Separating the chaff (including the weed seeds) from the straw is a great way to retain more crop residue at harvest. There are several harvest weed seed control (HWSC) systems that manage just the chaff, including chaff decks, chaff carts and chaff lining. All these systems rely on the weed seed entering the front of the header and then being captured in the chaff stream.

Chaff lining – new, cheap, simple [but not fully tested]

Chaff lining is a new harvest weed seed control method that has sparked incredible interest from growers throughout Australia. Similar in concept to the chaff deck system (called chaff tramlining), chaff lining places the chaff fraction directly behind the harvester rather than on the CTF tram tracks.

It is a grassroots grower solution to HWSC that is cheap to try and seems to be a very effective tool. Essentially weed seeds are collected at harvest and dropped in a narrow line behind the harvester. There is no burning required and all the straw is spread behind the harvester so there is very little loss of ground cover.

Getting started involves the construction of a simple chute that is then fitted to the harvester. The chaff lining chute can be used in all crops and does not affect harvester operation. Like all harvest weed seed control methods, the harvester must be set up and operated, correctly to ensure the maximum number of weed seeds enter the front of the header and are contained within the chaff fraction.

Below are a number of videos and farmer case studies showing how to implement chaff lining. This method of HWSC is well suited to controlled traffic farming but it can also work in non-CTF systems provided the harvester runs in the same lines for a few years in a row.

Grower case studies

Mic and Marnie Fels have developed a farming system where herbicides are used to back-up their cultural practices, rather than the other way around.

Mic Fels has used a modified version of chaff tramlining as their harvest weed seed control strategy. The idea is that the chaff component is funneled into a narrow strip in the middle of the CTF runs behind the header.

In a controlled traffic system this means that the weed seeds collected through the header are concentrated into the same zone every year and any seeds that germinate through the mulch are subject to the full force of crop competition. Similar to the experience of growers using a chaff deck to channel the chaff into CTF permanent wheeltracks, Mic finds that the chaff and the weed seeds simply rot away and there is no need to burn the chaff to gain the benefits of this weed control measure.

Daniel (left) and David Fox are pleased with the chaff lining chute they have introduced as a harvest weed seed control method on their Marrar farm near Wagga Wagga.

Marrar farmer Daniel Fox is chasing higher yields across his 2100 ha cropping program while also driving down weed seed numbers. For a few years Daniel has been adding components to his system to conserve moisture and keep herbicide resistant weeds at bay.

Having used narrow windrow burning for a few years and seeing the benefit of capturing seed from late germinated weeds at harvest, the Foxes have now built a chaff lining chute for the header and are delivering the chaff component, including weed seeds, into a 250 mm chaff line in the middle of the 12 m CTF lap. This maintains most of the crop residue evenly across the paddock and avoids the need for burning. “Having the weed seed concentrated in a narrow band reduces the amount of seed that germinates and also reduces the chance of weed seed being buried and ‘stored’ underground at planting now that we are using a disc seeder,” says Daniel.

Setting up harvesters to capture the weed seed in the chaff

https://www.weedsmart.org.au/resources/hwsc/