PO Box 126
Wongan Hills 6603
Western Australia
www.glenvar.com
Phone: +61 8 9672 1033
Fax: +61 8 9672 1023
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Map: Location of Wongan Hills

Herbicide Resistant Weed Management

Weed control in Australia represents 20% of the cost of crop production and totals millions of dollars every year. Resistance by weeds to herbicides is one of the most expensive and debilitating problems for cropping farmers to manage. Extensive investment in research to manage and overcome herbicide resistance demonstrates that an integrated effort at all stages of production is required. This includes the management of biological, chemical and mechanical activities.

Glenvar is in the heartland of herbicide resistance and has devoted many years and dollars to understanding and managing the problem, both individually and collaboratively with R&D initiatives. The business is now extremely competent at managing all of the 'front of harvest' issues of crop production specifically relating to herbicide resistance, and has been at the forefront of innovation in seeding and spraying technology, crop rotation and mechanical solutions.

Over the past seven seasons the business has been developing a mechanical solution to the residue management dilemma. This chaff and straw residue contains herbicide resistant weed seed, which, if allowed to remain, will only reinfest the system the following season. Capturing all harvest residue from the crop has been a driving goal, initially to remove the weed seed from the paddock and then to profitably utilise the material for value-adding to the crop returns.

  

The most recent 'mechanical' solution has been the removal of the post harvest chaff and straw from the paddock. This strategy has developed through several stages since the recognition of the need to remove the weed seeds in the early 1990s. Initial steps included placing the straw and chaff in rows, followed by burning in early autumn. This progressed to collecting the residue material in chaff carts and again burning the piles at a later stage. More recently the concept of dropping the residue in rows for collection and baling with a traditional baler, after harvest, has been explored.

Each of these methods have improved the efficiency of residue disposal but also has a measurable 'leakage' of weed seeds to the ground for next season germination, wastes the natural resource and adds to the air pollution problem by disposal of the residue as 'smoke'.