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Podcasts
Crop topping, using Sharpen & getting ready for harvest
In the podcast this week, we focus on crop topping, the relatively new herbicide, Sharpen and we also hear from farmer Lance Turner about harvester set-up for John Deere headers. AHRI and WeedSmart Agronomist Greg Condon has some great insights into crop topping, including the benefits and what to do if you suspect you’ve got herbicide resistance. We also hear from BASF Technical Services Manager, Phil Hoult, about the relatively new herbicide Sharpen.
Harvester set-up and implications of hay crossing borders
In this podcast, we’re focusing on harvester set-up and also capturing weed seeds in the chaff fraction. John Broster from CSU gives some insight into the research on capturing weed seeds which was done by himself and Michael Walsh from Sydney University. A few years back, they measured how many weed seeds were entering the chaff fraction in a modern harvester. We also hear from WA farmer Andrew Messina about setting up Case harvesters. Finally, with the terrible drought conditions in Queensland and NSW, many farmers have had to source feed from totally different parts of the country. We chat with Grains Farm Biosecurity Officer for Biosecurity Queensland Kym McIntyre about the implications.
Australasian Weeds Conference overview
In this podcast, we’re focusing on research and ideas out of the 21st Australasian Weeds Conference. WeedSmart's Jessica Strauss was lucky enough to attend and caught up with a number of researchers who presented. The AWC is a biennial conference and carries on a long tradition of bringing the weed management community together to discuss new developments and share information about cutting-edge and best weed management practices.
Cross-resistance update from Chris Preston and Truflex Canola explainer
Serious herbicide resistance news has come out of South Australia, with a population of ryegrass from the Eyre Peninsula, having been confirmed resistant to all of the pre-emergent herbicides – Avadex, Arcade, Trifluralin (shown in the above image), Propyzamide and Sakura, as well as two lesser-known herbicides EPTC and Thiobencarb. It was sampled in 2014 just two years after the release of Sakura in Australia. Metabolic cross-resistance is at play here. The really serious news is that a random survey in the South East of South Australia found many more populations of ryegrass with multiple cross-resistance to a range of pre-emergent herbicides, and the perplexing thing is that there is no predictable cross-resistance pattern. This is the research by the team of Chris Preston, Peter Boutsalis, David Brunton and Gurgeet Gill from the University of Adelaide with GRDC investment and we speak with Chris Preston about the findings and what they mean. If you'd like to learn more about the technical side of this finding, you can read AHRI insight here. In positive news, we learn about Truflex Canola technology which is being released by Monsanto in 2019. TruFlex canola is Monsanto’s second-generation weed control trait offering growers greater flexibility through an extended glyphosate application window up to first flower.
WeedSmart Week 2018 in Narrabri – An Overview
The podcast is a bit late this week as we’ve been busy in Northern NSW presenting WeedSmart Week! We kicked off the event with the Forum Day in Narrabri at Lochaber Station and then toured around the region visiting farms and hearing from growers and agronomists on their farming systems and weed control tactics. In […]
Crop competition and optical spraying in the North
Join your hosts, Jessica Strauss and Peter Newman, as they discuss crop competition and optical spraying in the Northern region. Gulargambone Farmer Chris Roche talks about crop competition in his farming system and Agronomist Rob Long discusses optical spraying options in the Northern Region. Both Chris and Rob will be speaking at the WeedSmart Week […]
WeedSmart Week is coming to the Northern Region!
As a whole, the northern grains region has had a very tough start to the 2018 winter cropping season. With a few showers around there are hopes of some reprieve from a long, dry spell. Unfortunately, weeds will most likely be the first to respond to rainfall and growers will need to make some difficult […]
Syngenta Growth Awards study tour to the UK and Switzerland
This week we're catching up with two of the 2017 Syngenta Growth Awards winners. We were very proud that our Extension Agronomist Kirrily Condon nabbed the Adviser award in the Sustainability category. For Junee-based Kirrily, the goal is always the same. If she can provide advice that is making farming more profitable as well as sustainable, then she’s set out what she aimed to achieve. We also caught up with Duncan Young who farms out of Beverley in Western Australia with JT Young and Sons. He received the Grower award in the Sustainability category.
The unsung hero – crop competition
We don’t want to give the weeds a free kick by growing un-competitive crops. Crop competition with weeds is a double-edged sword. There is the effect of the weeds on the crop, and the effect of the crop on the weeds. A competitive crop will suffer less yield loss at the hands of the weeds, […]
Blackgrass control in the UK and the pros and cons of paired rows
We have two diverse topics for this week’s podcast. Firstly we’ll hear from Peter Aikman (pictured above), who is a Mallee grain grower. He will share his experience on using the Rootboot for his paired rows, revealing the positive impacts and some of the negatives too. We also hear from Nuffield Scholar recipient Richard Hinchliffe. […]
Herbicide degradation in dry soil and volunteer and ratoon cotton control
With dry conditions in many parts of the country, we catch up with WANTFA Executive Director Dr David Minkey to find out if herbicides do in fact degrade in dry soil over time. We also chat with Queensland Department of Agriculture and Fisheries Principal Scientist Paul Grundy (pictured) about controlling volunteer and ratoon cotton.
Getting dry seeding right
With many parts of the country facing little to no Autumn rainfall events so far, many growers are dry seeding. ConsultAg Agronomist Geoff ‘Fos’ Fosbery joins us in this podcast and provides some great tips on ensuring you get dry seeding right, including tips on herbicide application, such as trifluralin. We also hear from WA […]