ONE Lower North cropping outfit has almost eliminated ryegrass on-property, after implementing a different weed eradication strategy in recent seasons.
Bartleville Grain, owned by the Marshman family at Owen, covers 3200 hectares of sandy through to red and brown loams and black cracking clay soils in the 420 millimetre-rainfall region with additional farming land near Clare and Saddleworth.
Crop yield averages at Bartleville include 4.7 tonne a hectare for bread wheat, 4.2t/ha for durum, 2.4t/ha for canola, 2.6t/ha for faba beans and about 2t/ha for lentils.
Following a four-year rotation of durum wheat, bread wheat, lentils or faba beans and canola has brought some relief to the operation's ongoing battle against ryegrass, but the challenge does not get any easier when the program is based on disc seeding, which discourages using soil-applied herbicides, and there is a strong focus to maintain 100 per cent ground cover - eliminating burning.
Operations manager Alec Bowyer, who also leases his family's property alongside some of the Marshman's property, said using two consecutive break crops in the rotation had "brought some time'' in the ongoing battle against ryegrass, which included populations resistant to Group A herbicides.
But the implementation of an integrated Harrington Seed Destructor has been a gamechanger for the cropping operation.
In combination with an upfront knockdown spray application when suitable, followed by the use of a paraquat and Sakura herbicide mix after sowing and a "double knock'' strategy, the Seed Destructor had significantly decreased ryegrass.
Mr Bowyer said the ryegrass was more prevalent on their acidic land, prompting them to also generate soil pH maps in recent years and apply 3000 to 4000 tonnes of lime.
"We bought the IHSD unit in time for the 2019 harvest so it's completed three now," he said.
"The main aim was to reduce ryegrass numbers, particularly in our acidic areas - where the bulk of the ryegrass is.
"Other weeds, like radish, are seen as a bonus to a degree, but like most farms, resistant ryegrass was becoming an increasing issue."
He said an estimated running cost for the Seed Destructor of $13/ha, including depreciation, had proved right on target, which was pleasing.
This was similar to applying Clethodim or Factor herbicides, which he said were becoming less effective.
The unit forces weed seeds that come off the sieves into two mills spinning at approximately 3100 revolutions per minute.
Invented by WA grower Ray Harrington and shown to kill up to 99pc of weed seeds, the destructor was designed and manufactured by de Bruin Engineering with its core mill technology developed by the University of SA.
RELATED:
Mr Bowyer said the operation ran two headers, one with the seed destructor and one without.
"The header with the destructor harvests patches with ryegrass while the other header reaps as per normal," he said.
"We've noticed acidic areas with high ryegrass numbers dropping every year due to the destructor, especially after cereals when they should be at their highest ryegrass count.
"Ultimately we aren't trying to reduce herbicide use, it's more used as another tool to help capture any escapees during the year that have survived chemical applications.
"It's not a silver bullet but it's a handy tool to help keep ryegrass and other weed numbers low.
"We may eventually use Seed Destructors on both (headers), but it works well, particularly where we can have some issues harvesting large bean or lentil crops.
"The green material can cause belt slippage and we need more pressure on the belt - we have got speed sensors on both belts now.''
He said summer rains had highlighted where the different headers had traversed, with green volunteers in noticeable rows where the machine had not been used.
The machine also has some handy extra features, according to Mr Boywer.
"The stone trap, which we drop every day, has been pretty handy," he said.
"We left a screwdriver and a spanner on the grain pan and it found its way into it fortunately.
"We also had a dropper go straight through and into the stone trap.''
Heading into seeding, Mr Bowyer said they were not doing anything too different this year.
"We've been spraying earlier in the summer after a couple of rains so the farm has had two spray passes since harvest," he said.
"We've also been spreading lime at a variable rate and also spreading chicken manure and biosolids in preparation for this years crop.
"We are hoping to start seeding late this week on canola."
Start the day with all the big news in agriculture. Sign up here to receive our daily Stock Journal newsletter.
