Got a question or topic you're interested in? Send us a text! 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 D...
Oct 31, 2018•49 min
Got a question or topic you're interested in? Send us a text! 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 ...
Oct 17, 2018•35 min
Got a question or topic you're interested in? Send us a text! 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 se...
Oct 03, 2018•38 min
Got a question or topic you're interested in? Send us a text! 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 c...
Sep 19, 2018•37 min
Got a question or topic you're interested in? Send us a text! 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 re...
Sep 05, 2018•44 min
Got a question or topic you're interested in? Send us a text! 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...
Aug 24, 2018•41 min
Got a question or topic you're interested in? Send us a text! 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 and the Big 6 framework for ...
Aug 08, 2018•31 min
Got a question or topic you're interested in? Send us a text! 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...
Jul 25, 2018•29 min
Got a question or topic you're interested in? Send us a text! 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...
Jul 11, 2018•29 min
Got a question or topic you're interested in? Send us a text! 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 E...
Jun 27, 2018•37 min
Got a question or topic you're interested in? Send us a text! We have two diverse topics for this week's podcast. Firstly we'll hear from Peter Aikman, who is a Mallee grain grower. He will share his experience on using the Rootboot for his paired rows, revealing the positive impacts and some of the negatives too. We also hear from Nuffield Scholar recipient Richard Hinchliffe. Richard is a grower and agronomist based in Yorkshire in the UK. By using a variety of diverse tactics, he's had a majo...
Jun 13, 2018•36 min
Got a question or topic you're interested in? Send us a text! With dry conditions in many parts of the country, we catch up with WANTFA Executive Director Dr David Minkey to find out if herbicides do in fact degrade in dry soil over time. We also chat with Queensland Department of Agriculture and Fisheries Principal Scientist Paul Grundy about controlling volunteer and ratoon cotton. Join your co-hosts Jessica Strauss and Peter Newman and take a listen!Music: bensound.com Learn more about WeedSm...
May 30, 2018•30 min
Got a question or topic you're interested in? Send us a text! With many parts of the country facing little to no Autumn rainfall events so far, many growers are dry seeding. ConsultAg Agronomist Geoff 'Fos' Fosbery joins us in this podcast and provides some great tips on ensuring you get dry seeding right, including tips on herbicide application, such as trifluralin. We also hear from WA Farmer Kit Leake, who has been dry seeding for many seasons. He shares his insights and explains how he plans...
May 16, 2018•27 min
Got a question or topic you're interested in? Send us a text! In this podcast, we learn about what's happening in the robotics space for broadacre agriculture from Professor Salah Sukkarieh, who is an international expert in the research, development and commercialisation of field robotic systems. Last year he won the 2017 CSIRO Eureka Prize for Leadership in Innovation and Science. We also hear from University of Illinois Crop Sciences Associate Professor, Aaron Hager. He gives us an update on ...
May 02, 2018•39 min
Got a question or topic you're interested in? Send us a text! With seeding and pre-emergent herbicide application kicking off around the country, we got in touch a couple of herbicide application experts to share some timely advice on getting spraying right this season.Dr Chris Preston from the University of Adelaide gives a preview of his WeedSmart Webinar "Use pre-ems to maximise winter crops in the South", sharing valuable insights into management strategies around pre-em application and also...
Apr 17, 2018•34 min
Got a question or topic you're interested in? Send us a text! With seeding around the corner (or potentially already started for some!), keeping weeds at bay will also be on the agenda. In this podcast, we chat with Lockhart farmer David Gooden. David not only farms but also developed the Sprayer Mate batching plant with his brother Owen. David is a Nuffield Scholar Recipient and has studied spray application technology. In this podcast, we learn about the benefits of using a batching plant, as ...
Apr 04, 2018•17 min
Got a question or topic you're interested in? Send us a text! Harvest seed destroying mill technology has been the talk of the town among harvest weed seed control enthusiasts. For the podcast, we normally stick to seasonal issues, but in February, the Kondinin Group released a cracker Research Report, "Residue Management at Harvest". In this report, the Research Team (comprising of Ben White, Josh Giumelli and Mark Saunders), tested and reviewed a number of harvest weed seed control tools, incl...
Mar 21, 2018•44 min
Got a question or topic you're interested in? Send us a text! Nearly a year ago, Extension Officer Greg Condon co-hosted a podcast with Jessica Strauss on disc seeding and stripper front systems. It's a bit more of an obscure system, but it sure generated a lot of interest and is currently our most played episode, with more than 750 listens (you can check it out here: https://weedsmart.org.au/podcasts/disc-seeder-stripper-front-systems/). Given the interest, we thought we'd put together another ...
Mar 07, 2018•32 min
Got a question or topic you're interested in? Send us a text! For many growers, planting seed is just around the corner, but to ensure quality seed is going in the ground, it's important to grade and clean it. In this podcast, we hear from seed cleaning contractor, David Bach who runs Toowoomba Grain and Storage. He explains the process of cleaning seed, why it's imperative and also provides some handy tips on grain storage. We also hear from Michael Meara who farms just south of Toowoomba in th...
Feb 21, 2018•18 min
Got a question or topic you're interested in? Send us a text! We're back for 2018! This is our first podcast of the year and we are excited to get into another year of informative and fun podcasts to ensure you have more crop and fewer weeds! Join your co-hosts Jessica Strauss and Peter Newman to delve into Summer weed management and learn about a mechanical weed tool - the Harvest Residue Topper (HRT).HRT developer Phil Bradley candidly discusses what lead him to build the HRT and provides a gr...
Feb 07, 2018•31 min•Season 3Ep. 1
Got a question or topic you're interested in? Send us a text! In our last podcast for the year, we present an overview of the recent Cropping and Resistance 'Riders of the Storm' Forum which was supported by GRDC and hosted by AHRI and CCDM.There was a great turnout for the 3rd GRDC Crop Protection Forum which was held at Bunya Campus in December.For the past two decades, agronomic practices have dramatically improved the profitability of farming systems, however, there is a steady increase in w...
Dec 19, 2017•30 min
Got a question or topic you're interested in? Send us a text! This time of year, Summer fallow management is on the radar to ensure weeds are kept at bay and don't rob soil moisture and nitrogen from next year's crops. Ag Grow Director and Agronomist, Barry Haskins goes over some tips for getting summer fallow management right. Podcast co-host Peter Newman also discusses the importance of considering spray drift and how to avoid it. Later on, we hear from Brad Hanson who is a researcher at UC Da...
Dec 04, 2017•25 min
Got a question or topic you're interested in? Send us a text! Research out of the Centre for Crop and Disease Management (CCDM)has indicated that the harvest weed seed control tool (HWSC), narrow windrow burning, also help manage the damaging fungal disease sclerotinia stem rot. Kyran Brooks did his Honours in this research, with supervisors Mike Ashworth (AHRI) and Sarita Bennet (CCDM). The trials found providing temperatures were high enough and reasonably consistent (at least 350°C maintained...
Nov 22, 2017•21 min
Got a question or topic you're interested in? Send us a text! With the help of GRDC, Planfarm recently held Harvest Weed Seed Control (#HWSC) workshops in Western Australia. All the current approaches to HWSC were discussed in detail. In this podcast, Jessica Strauss is joined by two co-hosts, Peter Newman (AHRI, WeedSmart, Planfarm) and Nick McKenna (Planfarm) where they provide an overview of the learnings from the workshops. We hear from Goomalling farmer John Even who attended one of the wor...
Nov 08, 2017•38 min
Got a question or topic you're interested in? Send us a text! It's that time of year already where farmers are getting out their spray rigs and dealing with in-crop weeds. While it is a busy time of year, it's essential to ensure you're across good spraying technique to ensure spray drift does not occur. Spray drift expert Mary O’Brien explains wind inversions and provides tips for avoiding spray drift. You can follow Mary on Twitter at @spraydriftgirlAutonomous farm machinery is the topic of th...
Oct 25, 2017•33 min
Got a question or topic you're interested in? Send us a text! Development Officer at Merredin Research Station Glen Riethmuller gives some useful insights into harvesting low, crop lifters and also discusses crop topping. We also hear from Meckering farmer Darren Morrell. He recently received resistance test results which showed one of the farms he is leasing has 80% trifluralin resistance. Darren talks about what tactics he'll be using to get on top of the weed problem he is now facing. Learn m...
Oct 12, 2017•26 min
Got a question or topic you're interested in? Send us a text! Jessica Strauss is joined by co-host Greg Condon who is one of the AHRI extension officers and also runs Grassroots Agronomy with wife Kirrily. Greg and Jessica discuss some of the upcoming technology in the ag space. In light of the technology theme, we hear from CSIRO farming systems scientist Rick Llewellyn about virtual fencing and its applications. The CSIRO and Agersens have been working on virtual fencing for a decade with assi...
Sep 27, 2017•31 min
Got a question or topic you're interested in? Send us a text! In Part 2 of our WeedSmart Week coverage, hear from Day 2 of the Farm Visits, featuring Stephen Hatty (@stephen_hatty); Ben Cruikshank (@ganmain) and Dan Fox (@dfox05). We also hear from attendees on the day including Di Holding. A variety of farming systems are explained, with tactics like the use of stripper fronts; chaff lining; chaff decks; disc + tyne seeding discussed. Music: bensound.com Learn more about WeedSmart and the Big 6...
Sep 12, 2017•32 min
Got a question or topic you're interested in? Send us a text! WeedSmart Week in Wagga Wagga was a cracker of an event. We're so thankful to all the contributors, including the stakeholders, the AHRI and WeedSmart teams, the presenters and farmers, and also those who attended. We had a Forum Day on Day 1, followed by farm visits on Day 2 & 3. In this podcast, Jessica Strauss and Peter Newman reflect on the event itself and we also hear from farmers and attendees on the first farm visit day. W...
Aug 31, 2017•38 min
Got a question or topic you're interested in? Send us a text! Today is the last day to register for WeedSmart Week in Wagga Wagga, which kicks off next Monday, August 21! In this podcast, Jessica Strauss and Peter Newman give a preview of some of the presentations and farm visits which will be occurring over the three-day event. Grassroots Agronomy and AHRI team member Greg Condon chats about his presentation, which will look at crop competition and disc and stripper front systems. Marrar farmer...
Aug 16, 2017•26 min
