Mrs Kelly Angel1, Dr Gurjeet Gill2, Benjamin Fleet2
1Birchip Cropping Group, Birchip, Australia, 2The University of Adelaide, Glen Osmond, Australia
Biography:
Kelly has been working within the agriculture industry for over 20 years with roles in crop research, agronomy and extension. The past 10 years in her role at BCG she has worked on projects including the GRDC National Frost Initiative, early sown wheat research, a range of weeds and pest management research projects and is also delivering BCG outcomes as part of the high performance soil CRC.
She is passionate about getting the messaging right for growers to make informed decisions for their farming system and has successfully delivered events that include timely and topical content.
Abstract:
Rosinweed (Cressa cretica cv. australis) and Star of Bethlehem (Ornithogalum umbellatum) are locally important but geographically discrete weeds which are difficult to control and are impacting growers in the Mallee and Wimmera sub regions of Victoria. Both weeds have naturally high tolerance to commonly used herbicides, such as glyphosate, meaning there is a need to identify effective herbicide options for either fallow or in crop control as appropriate. To determine if there were options or strategies available to growers that are not currently used, trials were undertaken to compare pre-emergent and post emergent strategies for the weeds as appropriate, as well as undertaking pot studies to determine short term efficacy and long term outcomes for managing these weeds. From the pot studies, rosinweed was difficult to grow in a controlled situation and screen herbicides and it was noted its key re-generation mechanism was from existing plant parts rather than seed. The Star of Bethlehem was shown to be most effectively controlled, by measure of subsequent bulb formation with the use of metsulfuron or paraquat containing products, with 100% control of bulb formation at commercially applicable rates. The application of this approach at the field scale is still under evaluation and will form part of the full paper once results are available.