Farming moisture : Beating weeds

For the past few years John Single and his son Tony have been using the air-borne weed sensor, Single Shot, developed by John’s other son Ben, to rapidly detect and map weeds on their dryland cropping property, Narratigah, near Coonamble, NSW. Read more here.

CQ grain grower Kurt Mayne bought a weedIT boom in 2019 and has been impressed with the benefits that have come with the addition of an optical sprayer to their weed control program. Find out more here.

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 the case study here.

When constraints like soil acidity are addressed, crops are more competitive against weeds. Read more here.

Mungbean growers are interested in the possibility of using mechanical methods to desiccate crops prior to harvest – there’s a lot to learn yet but Lindsay Evans has given it a go and expects there to be a weed control spin-off benefit. Read more here.

After a good couple of years in much of the Southern Region for rainfall, there is late season weeds coming through the crop.
In this episode, we hear from our Southern Region Agronomist, Greg Condon, who provides a great overview of the tools available to growers.
Elders Agronomist, Jason McClure talks to us about his experience with his clients in Naracoorte and surrounds in South Australia with windrowing to control ryegrass.
Elders Agronomist Jason McClure
Farm Manager of Viridis Ag in Junee, Andrew Wilson, NSW, also joins us to share his experience with adopting tools like soil amelioration, diverse crop rotations and chaff decks to get on top of ryegrass.
Links

We’ve updated Harvest Weed Seed Control 101! Our Communications Officer Jessica Scholle worked hard on this, with yourself and Dr Michael Walsh from University of Sydney. Register to do the freshly updated and free course here.
Our webinar recording on intercropping is now available for you to watch online. Our Southern Extension Agronomist Greg Condon hosts, with guest presenter Dr Andrew Fletcher, who is a farming systems scientist at CSIRO. In this webinar, the principles of mixing different crops together and how this can potentially provide weed management options for growers is outlined. Watch it here.
We also have a new WeedSmart Shorts video out with our Southern Extension Agronomist Chris Davey and Uni of Adelaide’s Dr Chris Preston on what the herbicide resistant hot spots are in the most recent ryegrass survey. Watch it here.