Weedsmart Podcast

We're excited to officially launch the ticket sales for not one, but two WeedSmart Week events in 2019 in this podcast. Our extension agronomists join us this week to provide overviews of our events in both Emerald and Horsham in August.An event which is just around the corner though is the Australian Local Government Association Conference where one of the topics will be roadside weeds. This is taking place from June 16-19. Andrew Storrie 'Agronomo' joins us on the podcast to explain how roadside weeds can directly impact farmers and provides some options for effectively controlling them. Take a listen!Learn more about WeedSmart by visiting our website. Don't forget you can follow us on Twitter too.

Soil compaction is an issue farmers face in regions across the country, however, there are some unique differences between management approaches in the Western/Southern regions, compared to the Northern region. In this podcast, we chat with Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development WA Agricultural Development Officer, Bindi Isbister, who is based in Geraldton, WA, to get a Western/Southern perspective.Agronomy professional & crop nutrition specialist, Bede O’Mara, gives us the Northern perspective. He works at Incitec Pivot Fertilisers in Toowoomba.Soil compaction leads to aeration issues and reduced water infiltration rates. This impacts negatively on a crop as its roots have less access to water and nitrogen.Compacted areas reduce water movement and decrease plant growth, leading to a less competitive crop and potentially more weeds.Take a listen to the podcast to learn how to prevent soil compaction and how to deal with it if you do have compacted soils.Learn more about WeedSmart by vis

This week on the podcast, we look into how to utilise weather forecasts and get the latest information on crop competition trials conducted by YP AG.Agriculture Victoria Seasonal Risk Agronomist Dale Grey provides an excellent overview of what weather forecasts to take seriously and those which you should probably take with a grain of salt. Dale has a real knack for simplifying this complicated topic, so if you want to get a good overview of the weather, he's your man!Dale refers to no breaking rains yet in the interview but since the interview, there have been some breaking rains across parts of southeast Australia. You can check out the latest map for May rain thus far here: http://www.bom.gov.au/web03/ncc/www/awap/rainfall/totals/cmonth/colour/latest.hres.gif. Also on related climate topics, the 'Climatedogs' animations (key climate drivers)were updated for a national audience recently and you can check them out here: http://www.climatekelpie.com.au/index.php/climatedogs/. And if you'd

Did you know you can bale your chaff dumps? South Australian farmer Andrew Ridgway, who is based in Pine Hill, has baled his chaff dumps this year to provide additional feed for stock in his area. Andrew tweeted about this novel way of managing chaff dumps, so we followed up with him to find out more about the process. We also caught up with WA farmer Rod Messina about how he's managing his dumps this year. Rod also talks to us about his recent trip over east where he was introduced to strip and disc farming systems. He talks about how some elements of the system could potentially be applied in WA farming systems.Learn more about WeedSmart by visiting our website. Don't forget you can follow us on Twitter too.

Technology in agriculture is rapidly evolving and being adopted by farmers in Australia. In this podcast, we catch up with the University of Sydney Associate Professor and Director of Weed Research Dr Michael Walsh to find out what his recent test results were on the vertical iHSD. He looked at the efficacy of the machine killing weed seeds and also looked at the effectiveness of the kill rate as the harvester increased its speed. We also caught up with Dalby Rural Supplies Precision Ag Specialist Jeremy Jones to find out more about the WEEDit and how it's performing in the marketplace. He also shares with us what ag tech has got him excited! Join your co-hosts Jessica Strauss and Peter Newman to learn more!Learn more about WeedSmart by visiting our website. Don't forget you can follow us on Twitter too.

Our new free course is here! In this podcast, you'll hear from your co-hosts Jessica Strauss and Peter Newman, who are joined by course presenters, Dr Chris Preston and Mark Congreve. WeedSmart Content Creator Cindy Benjamin also provides an update on what's new on the WeedSmart website. Pre-emergent Herbicides 101 will take you through the in’s and out’s of pre-emergent herbicides.The course is taught by Dr Chris Preston (Uni of Adelaide) and Mr Mark Congreve (ICAN)and the course covers why pre-emergent herbicides are an important tool in Australian cropping systems and how pre-emergents help you to manage herbicide resistance in crop weeds. (Especially in a world where 11 of the 17 modes of action have documented resistance.)If you're an agronomist and you'd like to deepen your understanding of how pre-emergent herbicides work (in both winter and summer cropping systems), this is the course for you!You can register for the course (for free!) here: http://www.diversityera.com/courses/pre-

In our last podcast we heard from weed seed impact mill company representatives, so this week we're hearing from farmers on the ground and finding out about how they faired over harvest with both the Seed Terminator and iHSD. Farmers Kim Slarke and Scott Walton both share their experiences. We also hear from WeedSmart Southern Extension Agronomist Greg Condon on what he has been presenting at GRDC Updates this year. He gives an overview of the benefits of crop competition and diverse rotations, as well as providing an overview of some of the hot topics at Updates this year. Join your co-hosts Jessica Strauss and Peter Newman and take a listen.Learn more about WeedSmart by visiting our website. Don't forget you can follow us on Twitter too.

We're so excited to be back for 2019! This is our first podcast for the year and we look at how both the Seed Terminator and iHSD fared over harvest.  Seed Terminator research and development director Dr Nick Berry gives insights into how the Seed Terminator went and talks about new models which are now available. McIntosh and Son Katanning branch manager Devon Gilmour tells us about how the iHSD went and talks about the now commercially available vertical mechanical iHSD. We also hear from DPIRD's Research Officer Catherine Borger about the benefits of lime application on crop-weed competition. Your hosts are Jessica Strauss and Peter Newman.Learn more about WeedSmart by visiting our website. Don't forget you can follow us on Twitter too.

On the last podcast for 2018, we spoke with Dr Haydn Kuchel, who is CEO & Head of Breeding at AGT Breeding. AGT Breeding develops new field crop varieties. Haydn talks to us about AGT-run crop competition trials and how they influenced their breeding programs. We also learn about crop varieties coming online in the future. Finally, we checked in with AHRI and WeedSmart extension agronomist, Greg Condon. He gives an overview of crop sequencing and rotation, as well as providing some tips on post-harvest spraying.Learn more about WeedSmart by visiting our website. Don't forget you can follow us on Twitter too.

Would you like to know more about the changes to 2,4-D regulations? Nufarm Technical Marketing Lead André Sabeeney joins us on the podcast to give an overview. He also shares some more broad advice on spray drift. We’re also joined by Professor John Thompson from the Centre for Crop Health based at the University of Southern Queensland. He talks to us about beneficial fungi and its impact on crop growth. The benefits for crop growth occur when the beneficial fungus is in combined with the crop root. This is called Vesicular Arbuscular Mycorrhiza. It previously was referred to as VAM and now more commonly AMF. A lack of AMF can result in poor early crop growth and therefore poor crop competition with weeds. We also learn more about a similar effect of root-lesion nematodes causing poor growth of intolerant wheat varieties and poor weed suppression. Join your hosts Jessica Strauss and Peter Newman and take a listen!Learn more about WeedSmart by visiting our website. Don't forget you can follow us on Twitt

We have a special guest co-host this week, with Planfarm Agronomist Dani Whyte joining Jessica Strauss, providing insights on farmer interviews she conducted last harvest.Dani has been working on a GRDC RCSN project, looking at harvest weed seed control practices in the Kwinana East port zone. She conducted 10 farmer interviews in total. In this podcast, we hear from three of the farmers who participated in the project.Farmers Clint Della Bosca, Stephen Dolton and Ty Kirby all share their HWSC experiences. The focus of this project is getting the weeds in the front of the header in low yielding crops. The core messages are: - Harvest low – 10-15cm (this means paddocks need to be clean of rocks/stumps and staff need to be trained accordingly)- Coreflute attached to finger tyne reel- Knife extensions/crop lifters on the front of the harvester. Take a listen to learn more.Learn more about WeedSmart by visiting our website. Don't forget you can follow us on Twitter too.

In the podcast this week, we focus on crop topping and the relatively new herbicide, Sharpen. In our last podcast, Andrew Messina talked to us about Case IH harvester set-up. This week farmer Lance Turner gives us the rundown on John Deere gear.AHRI and WeedSmart Agronomist Greg Condon talks to us about the benefits of crop topping and what to do if you suspect you’ve got herbicide resistance.We also hear from BASF Technical Services Manager, Phil Hoult, about the herbicide Sharpen. It’s now registered as a harvest aid in winter pulses, for winter cleaning of Lucerne and for wild radish seed-set control in winter cereals, so we’ll find out in more detail about its applications for broadacre croppers.Learn more about WeedSmart by visiting our website. Don't forget you can follow us on Twitter too.

In the podcast this week, we’re focusing on harvester set-up and we also discuss how to capture 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.Learn more about WeedSmart by visiting our website. Don't forget you can follow us on Twitter too.

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.The conference attracts more than 250 delegates from across Australasia and globally. In this podcast, we hear from Professor Antonio DiTommaso from Cornell University. He was the International Keynote Speaker and spoke on the topic “Climate Change and Weed Migration: What do we know and what next?”Dr Michael Widderick, who is the Principal Research Scientist at the Queensland Department of Agriculture and Fisheries also presented. He spoke on “Research priorities for weed suppression by crops in Australia”Last, but not least, we hear from Dr Cheryl McCarthy. She’s a Research Fe

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, 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

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 this podcast, join your hosts Jessica Strauss and Peter Newman as they discuss how the event faired and hear from growers, agronomists and other industry folk who attended the week. Take a listen!Learn more about WeedSmart by visiting our website. Don't forget you can follow us on Twitter too.

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 Forum in Narrabri on August 20th.Learn more about WeedSmart by visiting our website. Don't forget you can follow us on Twitter too.

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 decisions surrounding their cropping program, pre-emergent herbicide applications and maximising the competitiveness of any crops that get established.In this podcast, we hear from grower Brad Jackson and agronomist Peter McKenzie about why attending WeedSmart Week is a valuable investment of your time.WeedSmart Week, aimed specifically at growers and agronomists, will kick off in Narrabri with the Forum Day on 20 August, followed by two days of farm visits in the region.Three growers from the region who attended the 2017 WeedSmart Week in Wagga Wagga will be making presentations over the three days, outlining ways they have tackled herbicide resistance head-on.One of those growers is Brad Jackson, who farms wi

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. Duncan has always been passionate about agriculture and practices sustainable farming. He's put a self-imposed ban on some chemicals in certain places next to a river, he uses technology like knife rollers over his paddocks instead of burning stubble and he has established a significant buffer on his property of up to 100m along the nearby Avon River.Each year, Syngenta profiles growers and farm advisers from different regions across Australia and New Z

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, and will also reduce seed set of the weeds compared to an un-competitive crop. In other words more crop, fewer weeds.In this week's podcast, AHRI Extension Agronomist Greg Condon and AgriVision Agronomy Consultant Matt Bissett provide excellent overviews on the different crop competition approaches that can be employed. There are six main aspects of crop competition:1. Seed rate2. Row spacing3. Orientation (north-south vs. east-west)4. Crop variety/species5. Soil health6. Time of sowing – early sowing is usually bestIt’s hard to get all of the six points above right, and growers need not aspire to practising all six of these competition factors, but they can use a range of these practices to ensure that their crops h