As Yorke Peninsula grower Robert Agnew prepares to reap this year’s bumper crops he will be taking the unusual step of attaching a chaff cart to his header.
Last year Mr Agnew successfully towed a chaff cart behind the header to catch ryegrass, brome grass and volunteer crop seeds.
The idea of catching weed seeds at harvest began in South Australia but has been more widely used in Western Australia where some larger growers are using the chaff to lot-feed sheep or to produce pellets for the livesheep trade.
According to researchers, close to 50 per cent of all South Australian annual ryegrass populations have some trifluralin resistance and this figure is increasing.
Seed can remain viable in undisturbed soil for at least four years, with a decline rate of 70 to 80pc per year but University of Western Australia (UWA) research shows 75pc of annual ryegrass seed can be collected at harvest.
In a bid to keep his farm clean of trifluralin-resistant ryegrass and volunteer crop seeds that could carry over-summering cereal rusts, Mr Agnew has turned to the innovative practice that he tips will become widespread in the future.
“Generally the farm hasn’t got a lot of ryegrass and we want to keep it that way,” Mr Agnew says.
“I’ve been doing a lot of burning, particularly of wheat stubble, but that’s probably not the way to go for the future.
“Burning was doing a very good job of controlling the ryegrass and paddocks tended to get burned once every four years or so but erosion can be a problem.”
He says for the cost of a chaff cart, some extra time and fuel, the investment is not prohibitive and worked well last year.
“We’ve definitely reduced the number of volunteer cereals coming up in the following season so if we are getting rid of those we are getting rid of the grass as well,” he says.
Mr Agnew will use the cart when harvesting lentils and cereals this year.
“I don’t think it will work terribly well on canola or beans because too much heavy material comes out of the back of the header for that,” he says.
“In the wheat we may have troubles too this year because there might be too many awns and material that comes from the wheat and we might find it fills up too quick but it worked all right last year.
“The idea is to catch the ryegrass and volunteer seeds of whatever you are reaping that come out the back of the header and confine them so they can be burnt later on so that those grass seeds aren’t all over the paddock.”
An early start allowed Mr Agnew to get his crops including wheat, barley, durum, canola, lentils and beans in early and to finish them on late spring rain.
“You couldn’t really ask for much more this year, it’s about as good as its going to get – apart from the prices of grain,” he says.
“We tend not to get them good at the same time.”
Mr Agnew’s high-yielding barley crop follows Grains Research and Development Corporation (GRDC) recommendations to grow competitive crops to ryegrass at an optimum time and seeding rate.
Dr Chris Preston, University of Adelaide associate professor leads GRDC-supported herbicide resistance research projects and says any practice that stops ryegrass seed going back on paddocks is valuable.
“Using chaff carts is a very useful tool for some growers, while others will be already using hay production or top-cropping of pulses to combat resistant ryegrass,” Dr Preston says.
“It’s really about which weed seed set technique works best within the operation.”
He says more traditional strategies to combat trifluralin-resistant ryegrass include crop rotations, rotating herbicide groups, and growing break-crops or oaten hay or break-crops to control ryegrass seed-set.
He says growers can slow the onset of trifluralin resistance by using herbicides with alternative modes of action such as Groups J and K.
To download a new GRDC fact sheet, Glyphosate and trifluralin – non-selective herbicides losing control, visit www.grdc.com.au/glyphosatefacts. For more information on herbicide resistance, visit www.grdc.com.au/weedlinks.
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