Australia
October 11, 2013

Managing resistant weeds and prolonging the life of herbicides will be hot topics at a national web broadcast being coordinated by WeedSmart on Wednesday 16 October.

The internet broadcast titled “Weed Management – It’s a numbers game”, will feature a video discussion with leading weed researchers, farmers and agronomists and will allow growers to ask questions of the panel from wherever they are sitting at a computer.

Peter Newman (pictured), panel facilitator and Leader of Communications at the Australian Herbicide Resistance Initiative (AHRI), says the spread of herbicide resistance in weeds and the threat this poses to farming systems across Australia is the most widely significant issue confronting grain growers.

“When herbicides were working well most growers were not overly worried about the size of the weed seed bank because they could spray the weeds and grow a profitable crop. As herbicide resistance takes hold the only option to continue cropping is to take a long term view and strive for a very low seed bank using a diverse range of tools. Herbicide resistance is not a problem if you have no weeds!” Mr Newman said.

“The discussion will address the range of options available to help manage the weed seed bank, as well as general strategies to help promote the long term sustainability of herbicides

“We’re keen to hear from growers about their concerns and the panel will be there to answer their questions in real time,” he said.

The discussion will be held at Wagga Wagga’s Agricultural Institute Conference Facility on Wednesday 16 October at 12noon (AEDT) and will be broadcast live via the internet around Australia.

You can register for the internet broadcast at the following site:

http://webcast.viostream.com/?viocast=7088&auth=a8146972-df3a-45d7-979f-bf32d3a2d732

Panel speakers include:

• Peter Newman, Leader of Communications at the AHRI
• Ray Harrington, Darkan grower (WA) and developer of the Harrington Seed Destructor
• Lachlan Caldwell, Agronomist with Delta Agribusiness, at Lachlan Fertilizers Rural, Grenfell
• Prof. Deirdre Lemerle, weed scientist and Director of the Graham Centre for Agricultural Innovation (an alliance between Charles Sturt University and NSW DPI), Wagga Wagga
• Murray Scholz, Culcairn grower (NSW) and Nuffield Scholar
• Michael Widderick, Principal Research Scientist (Weeds), Agri-Science Queensland, Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, Queensland
• Ken Young, Plant Health Technologies Manager, Grains Research and Development Corporation

Website: http://www.ahri.uwa.edu.au/

Published: October 11, 2013