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HARVEST WEED SEED CONTROL

Conversations with Farmers

Each month we chat about how they use Harvest Weed Seed Control in their
farming operation and how the Seed Terminator fits into their farming system.
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David Brunton, PhD student at The University of Adelaide’s Weed Science Research Group

27/9/2018

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I’m off a family farm in South West Victoria; it’s a mixed farming enterprise comprising of cropping (mixed cereal and pulses), fine wool and prime lambs. I undertook my undergraduate degree at the University of Tasmania in Hobart on a full scholarship, it was a fantastic opportunity to be exposure to such diverse agricultural production; and during my honours year I investigated the impact of herbicide residues in poppies. My passion for research into herbicide resistance continued to grow and after finishing university I started a job with SARDI working in cereal, pulse and canola herbicide tolerance. I am currently undertaking a PhD and my research is aimed at providing a better understanding of resistance development in L. rigidum to pre-emergent herbicides in the Group J (thiocarbamates) family. This also  includes management strategies for grower implementation. I was fortunate to make the discovery and publish a scientific paper ‘Resistance to multiple PRE herbicides in a field-evolved rigid ryegrass (Lolium rigidum) population’. Being supervised by three highly respected experts in this field Chris Preston, Gerjeet Gill and Peter Boutsalis at the University of Adelaide’s Weed Science Research Group, has been an incredible experience and privilege.

In laymen's terms, what did your research find?

A population of ryegrass from a paddock on the Eyre Peninsula, South Australia is confirmed resistant to all of the pre-emergent herbicides, Avadex, Arcade, Trifluralin, Propyzamide, Sakura, EPTC and Thiobencarb. This study documented the first case of field-evolved resistance to thiocarbamate herbicides in ryegrass. 
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​In non laymen's terms: A population of rigid ryegrass (Lolium rigidum Gaudin) from a field on the Eyre Peninsula, South Australia, was suspected of resistance to thiocarbamate herbicides. Dose–response studies were conducted on this population (EP162) and two susceptible populations (SLR4 and VLR1). The resistant population exhibited cross-resistance to triallate, prosulfocarb, EPTC, and thiobencarb with higher LD50 to triallate (14.9-fold), prosulfocarb (9.4-fold), EPTC (9.7-fold), and thiobencarb (13.6-fold) compared with the susceptible populations SLR4 and VLR1. The resistant population also displayed resistance to trifluralin, pyroxasulfone, and propyzamide. The LD50 of the resistant population was higher for trifluralin (13.8-fold), pyroxasulfone (8.1-fold), and propyzamide (2.7-fold) compared with the susceptible populations. This study documents the first case of field-evolved resistance to thiocarbamate herbicides in L. rigidum.
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Associate Professor Chris Preston, Geoff Philips, Dr Nick Berry, Associate Professor Gurjeet Gill, PhD Candidate David Brunton, Graduate engineer Keagan Grant

What is the problem with the herbicides, why are weeds becoming resistant so quickly?

We’ve spent the past 20-30 years using herbicides to control weeds and it's going to take considerably longer to undo. We know ryegrass is exceptional at evolving resistance to herbicides, but to do it in such a short space of time - wow. We have selected through herbicides, weed species that have the capacity to survive these applications. Widespread resistance to post-emergent group A and B and pre-emergents herbicides such as trifluralin is well known due to repeat use over many years. However, of greatest concern is resistance evolution to newer chemistries such as Boxer Gold, Arcade and more recently Sakura. Adoption of non-herbicidal weed control strategies remains low. Herbicides still remain the most cost effective weed control method and as a result resistance continues to evolve.   ​

What is driving the rise in Herbicide Resistance we’re seeing?

History of herbicide use plays a major role but a reluctance by industry to readily adopt non-herbicidal weed control tactics has been a major driver of resistance evolution. Currently it seems when one herbicide fails, we go to the next and new herbicide modes of action are becoming less common. We’re not the only ones to have found herbicide resistance, in northern NSW and Queensland there have been new cases of glyphosate resistance in sowthistle, fleabane, feathertop rhodes grass and ryegrass; it seems to be a daily occurrence now. Getting industry excited about new methods of weed control is important. It will be necessary to incorporate non-herbicidal methods in combination with herbicides. Doing so will aid in prolonging the use of this precious resource. ​

What does your research mean for Australian Farmers in practical terms?

Herbicide resistance is a major threat to cropping systems worldwide. Many herbicides previously used for weed control, have failed or are failing to provide adequate control of major grass and broadleaf weeds. Annual ryegrass is one of these problematic weed species, which has developed resistance to a number of pre and post-emergent herbicides, across multiple herbicide groups (modes of action). The current story of herbicide rotation has clearly been demonstrated as a non-sustainable long-term tactic. Incorporating non-herbicidal methods of weed control in combination with strategic herbicide use is fundamentally the way forward.

  • HWSC: every paddock every year. All crop types (pulses, canola and cereals) provide an effective opportunity to implement harvest weed seed control (HWSC) tactics. However each situation needs to be carefully thought out and changes to harvest method may need to be considered. Back home, we found narrow windrow burning to be a very effective strategy to manage ryegrass in lupins. It allowed us the chance to capture seed from late germinating individuals and put these into a narrow chaff line which would later be burnt. Previously this ryegrass seed would have been spread back onto the paddock. On our farm we have demonstrated that the implementation of HWSC when used in combined with herbicides has allowed us to better manage problematic weeds such as ryegrass and reduce the weed seed bank.
    HWSC methods include: Narrow Windrow Burning, Chaff Cart, Chaff Tramlining or Chaff Lining, Impact mill technology
  • Impact Mill Technology: A capital investment in weed control equipment is big, but what equipment isn’t? Investment in mechanical weed control methods in combination with herbicides will have a longer term impact than herbicides alone. A combination of these practices over multiple years will reduce the amount of viable seed returning to the seed bank. A mature ryegrass plant can produce many thousands of seeds and combined with seed longevity of 1-4 years (depending on conditions) requires several years of management to reduce the seed bank. Think of what you will do in 5-10 years if we continue to rely on herbicides alone and are no longer able to control problematic weeds using herbicides due to resistance.
  • Testing for Herbicide Resistance: in SA  Peter Boutsalis, Plant Science Consulting, resistance testing both seed and plant test (QuickTest) http://www.plantscienceconsulting.com.au/
  • For your available herbicide modes of action, it puts emphasis on Canola and pulse crops where you still have available chemistry.
  • Windrow to ensure weed seed capture before seed set in combination with HWSC measures
  • Crop Competition​

Can you explain the testing process you are doing for Seed Terminator at Weed Science Research Group of the University of Adelaide?

It is really exciting to be working with Nick Berry as at the end of the day mechanically killing weed seeds is fundamentally important to incorporating non-herbicidal forms of weed control into our current farming systems. The Weed Science Research Group has been testing new mill outputs allowing for rapid and concise dissemination of outcomes. We take the test samples provided, spread them on to trays in a growing medium, after four weeks an emerging weed count is performed and these results are documented and provided to Seed Terminator. These outcomes have allowed for further development and overall improvement of this technology. This technology is easily adapted to commonly used harvesters in existing farming systems, I'm excited to be a part of solutions coming out of this research. 
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"Different responses of 2 ryegrass biotypes to pre-emergent herbicide treatment.  Top to bottom: Untreated, Avadex Xtra®, Arcade®, Boxer Gold® and Sakura®."
Image taken from The University of Adelaide Weed Science Group, Current PhD Projects, David Brunton 27/9/2018 
​https://agwine.adelaide.edu.au/research/farming-systems/weed-science/research-projects/

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Candeloro Farms, Toodyay WA

20/9/2018

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Our family crops 12,000ha In the area of Toodyay WA, rotating Canola, Wheat, Barley, and Lupins. As with everyone the whole aim of our farming enterprise is to make a profit and managing weeds is right up there with what we are trying to achieve.

What has been your Harvest Weed Seed Control journey so far?

We got out of stock 18 years ago and knew we needed to do something to get on top of the weeds. We started out 12 years ago with windrowing, then chaff topping for a few years, then around 5 years ran chaff carts until we invested in the mill technology in 2017. We jumped in early with prototype mill technology purely because we had to control Ryegrass. Radish was an issue, but we have it under control now. Bromegrass is another big one for us, in combination they cost us a lot of money in yield.

How did you go with wearing parts last harvest?

Obviously longevity of the mills is beneficial, but we weren't expecting to get more than a year out of them anyway, two years we would've been stoked! We've had independent lab tests done over all our varieties, around 25 samples, and the Seed Terminator has consistently killed 95%.
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How will you feel harvesting a weedy patch of the crop this year?

Like we've got some Revenge! Past few years we've been up against it. Nothing has worked, we've tried crop topping but have had issues with escaping weeds. Whereas I know anything entering the mills is going to be killed.

How important is harvester setup for HWSC?

Harvester setup is the biggest thing to get your head around. If you can comfortably harvest with 2 headers, you may need to consider 3 if you want to do HWSC properly. We slow right down, for example, in bulky crops to allow the straw to process and in some conditions, you just have to stop and move to a different paddock. We are introducing windrowing this harvest to try and get the weeds while they are green before they've set, to reduce the losses at the cutter bar.
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You've decided to upgrade your MY17 Seed Terminator, what influenced this decision?

We would've held off on the upgrade kit if it wasn't for the wear package released with the MY18 Seed Terminator. We're hoping to have fewer constraints from weed pressure, free up our rotations and increase profit margins.

What do you see as the future of this technology?

New chemicals aren't being developed, just different modes of action and we are running out of options pretty quickly. Harvest to harvest, all year round we have to be conscious of weed management; combining chemicals just isn't enough, weeds are developing herbicide resistance quickly. If they ban glyphosate, and one day it may happen, I estimate 60% of farmers within our local shire wouldn't be able to crop. We've all been looking for something mechanical for a long time. I think the mill technology needs to be introduced to all headers, across all farms, its a good move for Australian Agriculture.
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Glenlea Partners, Lucindale SA

17/6/2018

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Peter and Alison Williams and children Tim & Mary, farm 1790 hectares at Lucindale in the high rainfall zone of the South East of South Australia.  Their cropping program is 1135 hectares of wheat, barley & beans on a continual rotation. They've been minimal till, full stubble retention for over 20 years.

What prompted you to invest in a Seed Terminator?

Due to our heavy stubble loads and long season rainfall, weeds, especially rye grass, has always been problematic and after having two very wet winters which made controlling weeds even more difficult, it became obvious that we had to do something other than rely solely on chemicals.  Not being able to windrow burn and preferring not to go down the chaff cart path because of the heavy stubble loads, mechanical weed seed control seemed a good choice.

How has your s670 coped with the Seed Terminator?

We fitted a Seed Terminator to our John Deere S670 last harvest and had a trouble free run, although horsepower was lacking due to the cool period during our early harvest and also quite bad frosting in some of our wheat.  Hearing the new design for this year will require less power is going to be beneficial.

You sent some pictures of 'Proof in the Paddock' back in April, have you had much germination since?

It’s only early days in this process but we are quite happy with the results so far especially not having the volunteer cereals come up that came out the back of the header because of the frosting that occurred.  The challenge will be to get as many weed seeds into the header as possible because the terminator controls them from there.  Where we windrowed barley as early as we could, the results have been extremely good.

What about the future?

So far the experience has been positive and we’re looking forward to seeing the results after the second year especially if the horsepower required is less.
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Our barley paddock that was windrowed before harvest after 25mls of rain in April 2018
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Neighboring paddock after being speed tilled in February after 25mls of rain in April 2018
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Taylor Grain, Lockhart NSW

16/6/2018

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A seeder miss last year (canola) on an old fence line □‍♂️
Wheat 2016. Wheat 2018
Most of cover here is ryegrass straw □‍♂️
Roundup at Windrowing.
Sakura this year.
No knockdown. @seed_terminator on combine #PrettyGoodResult pic.twitter.com/XVLQ1alDf3

— Mark Taylor (@markt8040) June 13, 2018
Next Up Glenlea Partners
Mark and Dave Taylor crop around 2000ha at Lockhart NSW, growing wheat, canola, fava beans and lentils. Taylor grains was one of our early adopters, we fitted up their Case IH 7120 with a Seed Terminator in time for the 2016 harvest. Despite a run of bad luck in the maiden year mainly due to factory faulty bearings, they managed to add great value by developing new chute work to spread material through MAV chopper (see tweet below).

We have @seed_terminator shooting into @strawchopper airflow #IhelpYou,YouHelpMe creates pretty big airflow, gets full width #mostOfTheTime pic.twitter.com/B3nyDAAfSn

— Mark Taylor (@markt8040) November 13, 2017

What prompted you to move to mechanical weed control?

We used to windrow burn just on our canola. Windrow burning works really well as a weed control method, but it removes the residues from the paddock and that really goes against the grain for our farming system. The reason we moved to Seed Terminator was really our ability to retain our residues with the associated nutrients and moisture as well as doing something about weeds.

How important is spread of residue while employing Harvest Weed Seed Control Measures?

Chaff Lining, Tramlining and Chaff carts are all options, but all the nutrients from the residue are confined in lines or chaff dump sites rather than putting those nutrients back across the whole paddock. Then you have the weeds, which you have put through the header, being put back on the paddock with the residue and you either hope they rot or burn them. I believe Seed Terminator is part of the answer, chemicals do their bit, but we need to ensure their longevity.
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What about the future?

Power was much higher than we thought it was going to be and an issue with our smaller 7120, but we still got 400ha done in 2017. We're looking forward to the upgrades coming out this year, 30% less power will certainly be a game changer for our operation.
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Berry Partners Deep Dene, Kangaroo Island SA

9/6/2018

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On our farm, Deep Dene, we run 4500 adult merino sheep and crop 600 hectares. We grow canola, broad beans and wheat. Lloyd’s parents settled here as Soldier Settlers in 1955; we’re the second generation of farmers on Deep Dene.

You run chaff carts and feed the piles to sheep, are there benefits to running a dual enterprise?

We get more value out of the stubble because the sheep don't have to search for grain. We can have a higher stocking rate over the winter growing season and then spread all that stocking rate out over our summer cropping program for a couple of months while they eat the chaff piles. We haven't got a lot of the bad summer weeds, if the sheep are in the paddock early they keep on top of the summer weeds because when the weeds are small they tend to keep nibbling away at them, but if they aren't, melons for example can get away. We don't have to summer spray yet, but I can see it coming.

What do you do after the sheep have eaten the chaff piles? Do you still have to burn?

As we're a higher rainfall area, in a normal year usually the chaff starts to rot and very few weeds comes up, but in a dry year, ryegrass and other weeds will come up. So in those cases we probably should've burnt it. In regards to placement we have crab holes so we call it 'terraforming' and drop the chaff piles into them, it rots even better and cleaner in those situations. 

When did you start hand feeding this year? Without chaff piles when would you have started hand feeding?

We started hand feeding 500g/head/day back at the end of January 2018, before that all our sheep were on chaff piles in the stubble. This year we haven't had rain since the middle of October 2017, so we would've started feeding in December if we didn't have chaff piles, we get a good month or more extra out of our crop paddock feed. We find its easier for the sheep to find all the feed, obviously less walking being in concentrated areas, also it doesn't matter so much if you have grain loss over sieve harvesting, (but we'd still rather sell it than put it through the sheep!)

In your farming system would running a Seed Terminator be a net negative?

For our dual enterprise that extra month of feed is worthwhile, but we might do better crops with the residue retention. If we ran a Seed Terminator it would certainly be harder with the livestock side of things unless of course Kikuyu and all those other summer feeds kick in. If we were 100% crop we would certainly have a Seed Terminator, but with the integration and the synergies of our dual enterprises a chaff cart is a better fit.

Has the chaff cart improved the weed burden in the three years you've been using it?

I can see areas that have been bad, that are now ok, but if we have a non competition year from getting too wet and the crop fails, then the weeds tend to build up quickly. Its up to us to perhaps spray top them in that situation to die it down. but when your collecting the weeds, then killing the weed seed with the sheep and then having a competitive crop its been working really well. I don't think we'd be able to do continuous crop like we've done for 22 years without it. We've only burnt a some paddocks couple of years in that time. Returning residues to the ground is really good, avoiding burning and keeping our reliance off the chemicals.

What crop rotations have you used in the past? How important is the combination of crop rotation, chemicals and HWSC?

In the early days we rotated lupins, wheat and canola. Lupins were ok where they grew really well, but you'd have anywhere from 10% to 50% of the paddock not survive the winter, so all of a sudden every time you grew lupins you would more than quadruple your weeds, especially rye grass. After that we tried rotating just canola and wheat following the dollars, we wanted a legume but didn't know of any that would work well in our environment, other than pasture, but then a couple of growers on the Island brought in broad beans which worked really well. Broad beans built up our rotation and compete fairly well with the weeds. Having three reasonably competitive crops, in addition to the chemical regime, and the collection of seeds with the chaff cart, we feel we can keep going and not have to give up on farming.
Next up Taylor Grain
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Nick Berry (left) with his mum and dad Lloyd & Christine Berry on the family farm.
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Schutz Grains, Grass Patch WA

8/6/2018

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Our second legends of the month are Mick and Heather Schutz from Grass Patch Western Australia. Mick is the owner of the 'Triplets', three John Deere S680's fitted up with three Seed Terminators. He has been instrumental in our Research & Development program, traveling to Kangaroo Island with our Test Stand to work with Nick on power with Aero-Impact 2.0 in early 2018. We caught up with Mick in June 2018.

About Schutz Grains

Mick, Heather and sons Dylan and Tyson crop 7500 Hectares at Grass Patch WA. They have always planned and farmed for the long term future by setting up CTF (Control Traffic Farming) interrow seeding and making their own chaff decks to maintain stubble and place weed seed on tramlines.

2017 was your First Year with Seed Terminator, what encouraged you to invest in three units?

We had taken a keen interest in mechanically devitalising weed seeds at harvest but know the power losses associated with a hydraulic drive from our own design and engineering work. When Seed Terminator evolved we got interested again with the Mechanical Drive and 4 modes of killing weed seeds. We were only going to fit one Seed Terminator, but we saw the new drive on the 2017 models, we bit the bullet and went to three to start the next step into the future of weed seed control. This also allowed us to compare wear and performance against each header. We don't have any major weed seed issues but just wanted to stay in front of control, we believe this is the next step on from chaff decks.

How important is residue retention?

Retaining chaff and stubble is critical organic material to maintain soil health, we have never burnt stubble for weed control!

Why are you passionate about seed terminator?

Using a mechanical method (not cultivation) to control weeds is brilliant. This year we had no mouse problem because they got hungry and died. After one year we had no weed seed germination in relation to chaff spread from headers - very happy one year down.

What about the future?

Power and wear were our two Big Questions after 2017! After being on Kangaroo Island helping Nick with testing this has been address for the 2018 season.
< Nick, Mick and Mark 'the three amigos' at the Kangaroo Island Research & Development Facility in January 2018 working on Aero-IMPACT 2.0 31% reduction in power.
Next up Lloyd & Christine Berry
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Laharna Farms, Dowerin WA

8/6/2018

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Our first legend of the month is Andrew 'the trail blazer' Todd from Dowerin Western Australia. Andrew and Jacinta run a 100% cropping enterprise on 4200 hectares in the central wheat belt. He was one of the first farmer research partners to get a Seed Terminator fitted up and running in 2016, it was his effort and persistence early on that enabled us to head off many issues before other machines were fitted up. Here is a Q&A we had with Andrew in May 2018

2016 was our Maiden Year, why did you choose to add a Seed Terminator?

The move to Seed Terminator was the next logical step in a HWSC journey that began with windrow burning for a number of years followed by 9 years of chaff cart. The main reasons being full residue retention and retention of the nutrients in it and reduction in time, energy and risk involved with burning. To me putting mills on the back of the harvester seemed to be the ultimate option in HWSC. It would save us time by not having to do firebreaks and burn dumps, and it would improve our harvest efficiency in that we could get back to harvesting as we pleased rather than managing the logistics of dumping the cart in right spot and doing bigger headland turns so as not to jack knife. They might sound like small gains but if you’ve ever towed a cart will understand the limitations. So we agreed to take on one of the first 11 Seed Terminators.

Why is mechanical weed control technology important for the future of farming?

A reliance on herbicide only as a weed control method has led to herbicide resistance, the very reason for the birth of HWSC measures. Mechanical weed control will aid in increasing the longevity of efficacy of the herbicides which are yet to be affected by the development of resistance.

Herbicides are a critical part of weed control in cropping system and their cost is also a significant part of the total cost of grain production. Generally the older herbicides are cheaper as they are no-longer under patent, new herbicides are few and far between and are often expensive and so we need to protect and prolong the efficacy of those older and cheaper herbicides as a measure to help maintain profitability. Mechanical control is crucial to preserving and protecting the efficacy of herbicides.

How does it feel not burning and what did you do instead of burning this year?

Burning an entire program of either windrows or chaff dumps was quite a time consuming job when you consider the time involved in the whole process from installing firebreaks around chaff dumps to lighting and monitoring fires and weather conditions. One of the things I enjoyed this year was not having to constantly monitor the wind forecast looking for good opportunities for burning dumps and then having to adjust the other farm activities to fit around this. This year we spent more time on doing some more liming, equipment prep for seeding. It certainly felt like we had more time. I think this is a difficult thing to put a value on but I believe that when I have seen it estimated at $2/ha it is  undervalued…..obviously depending on what you choose to do with that time

What do you think not burning does for your soils and future productivity?

I think maintaining soil cover is important. Spreading the residue evenly across the width of the harvester is still a challenge though. We may see some N tie up from the build up of cereal stubbles in particular but I think the return of K into the system along with some moisture retention improvements should go a long way, if not beyond offsetting this.
NEXT UP SCHUTZ GRAINS, GRASS PATCH WA
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