AHRI Snapshots: Recent Episodes
AHRI Snapshots
AHRI Snapshots is a podcast which provides information on what we do at the Australian Herbicide Resistance Initiative, as well as finding out what other researchers in weed science are up to around the country and the world. AHRI's researchers work out of the University of Western Australia, right next to the beautiful Swan River in WA's capital, Perth.
In this episode of AHRI Snapshots, we catch up with an international guest. Dr Juan Vorster is an Associate Professor in Plant and Soil Sciences from the University of Pretoria, South Africa.
Juan is studying herbicide resistance mechanisms in weeds and the development of effective management strategies for these weeds.
He’s currently in Perth for a conference, so it’s a great opportunity to have a chat and learn more about his research.
To learn more about Juan's research, visit the University of Pretoria's website.
You can follow AHRI on Twitter here. To learn more about AHRI's research and team, check out the website here.
In this AHRI Snapshots, we catch up with Principal Research fellow, Dr Qin Yu about her latest paper on glyphosate resistance in goosegrass.
This paper was published in Nature Communications in August 2023, which is an impressive achievement.
This paper is complicated, but essentially the researchers have found a hot spot on the genome of goosegrass that is a herbicide resistance generator.
In this research, the team found that in glyphosate-resistant goosegrass the EPSPS gene was translocated to the sub-telomer region and duplicated many times there, leading to glyphosate resistance occurring.
This work is useful not only in resistance gene discovery, but also in the development of gene-based next generation herbicides, like RNAi, as well as genetic reversal of resistance.
It will also contribute to studying the weediness and adaptation of this global weed species.
Paper: ‘Subtelomeric 5-enolpyruvylshikimate-3-phosphate synthase copy number variation confers glyphosate resistance in Eleusine indica’
You can follow AHRI on Twitter here. To learn more about AHRI's research and team, check out the website here.
Over the last few years, the AHRI agronomy team has done extensive work looking at crop competition in hybrid and open-pollinated canola.
Project lead, Dr Mike Ashworth, joins us on this podcast to discuss the findings on ideal seeding rate, variety, row spacing and seed size.
Herbicides are currently working quite well in canola. We know that herbicide resistance is a real threat though, so we discuss what the current trends are in herbicide use in canola crops and what growers need to do to mitigate herbicide resistance.
You can follow AHRI on Twitter here. To learn more about AHRI's research and team, check out the website here.
In this episode, we’re catching up with visiting Associate Professor Todd Gaines. Todd is from Colorado State University and is currently working from UWA with AHRI.
Next month he’ll be at the International Plant and Animal Genome Australia conference in Perth city, where he’s organising a two-hour session of invited talks. Todd is also organising a subsequent workshop at UWA on September 22nd, which will have the theme “We have weed genomes, but what do we do now?”
While herbicides are the most effective and widely adopted weed management practice, the evolution of multiple herbicide resistance in damaging weed species threatens the yield and profitability of many crops.
Todd is an expert in how genomics and molecular biology can contribute to improving weed management. He’ll explain what the focus will be at these upcoming events in this chat.
You can follow AHRI on Twitter here. To learn more about AHRI's research and team, check out the website here.
Blue lupins are notorious for being difficult to control and plants produce prolific seed banks.
Blue lupins are closely related to the domesticated narrow-leaf lupin, also known as the white lupin, so whichever herbicide is survived by white lupins is also survived by blue lupins. This is problematic as they look alike.
This is where a team of researchers from AHRI and the University of Western Australia, led by UWA PhD candidate, Monica Danilevich comes in.
The team has recently taken the approach of using weed labelling and deep learning algorithms to see if they can distinguish between the two lupin species in images captured by unmanned aerial vehicles, known as UAVs, like drones, or ground-based cameras.
The aim is to detect and spray just the blue lupins in crop. Monica explains the results further in this chat.
Links
- Paper: Segmentation of Sandplain Lupin Weeds from Morphologically Similar Narrow-Leafed Lupins in the Field
- Code repository
- Image repository
- Centre for Applied Bioinformatics
- Follow Monica on Twitter here
- Github
- You can also read more about the research in the AHRI insight here
You can follow AHRI on Twitter here. To learn more about AHRI's research and team, check out the website here.
In this interview we chat with AHRI Research Officer Roberto Lujan Rocha about the survey work he has conducted on the quality of water sourced on farm for spray application.
This project is a collaboration between University of Western Australia, AHRI and the Centre for Water & Spatial Science.
The team looked at water from bores, dams, desalinated water, rainwater tanks scheme water and waste water.
Roberto surveyed water sources in the mid to south West Australian wheatbelt in September 2022 and has recently completed surveys of water sources in the Merredin area of Western Australia.
So why is this survey work important? Well, when it comes to optimising spray efficacy, water quality is an integral component.
Roberto’s initial survey showed that some water sources might fall outside the ideal ranges to ensure good spray application.
He explains the survey results in detail in this chat.
Links
- Project factsheet
- GRDC spray water quality factsheet
- WeedSmart 'Optimise Spray Efficacy' Big 6 principle
You can follow AHRI on Twitter here. To learn more about AHRI's research and team, check out the website here.
As reliance on pre-emergent herbicides for both broadleaf and grass species is increasing, it’s essential to understand the dynamics of weed-herbicide interactions in the field.
Dr Mahima Krishnan and her colleagues from University of Adelaide are in the process of studying populations of summer weeds to help predict and then mitigate any future resistance that maybe develop by implementing appropriate herbicide application strategies. This is a project funded by GRDC and in collaboration with AHRI and University of Adelaide.
You can follow AHRI on Twitter here. To learn more about AHRI's research and team, check out the website here.
On this episode of AHRI Snapshots, we’re catching up with former AHRI master’s student Geide Figueiredo (also known as JD) who worked alongside AHRI researcher Roberto Busi to try and break the herbicide cinmethylin, commercially known as Luximax.
Fortunately, they weren't able to break it, which is great news for farmers and agronomists because it means that this herbicide is still working and resistance hasn’t developed.
However, it’s always important to remember there’s no guarantee that resistance won’t develop, and the best way to prevent that is by using diverse weed control tactics.
You can read the AHRI insight and find the paper on this research here.
You can follow AHRI on Twitter here. To learn more about AHRI's research and team, check out the website here.
In this interview, AHRI's Jessica Strauss chats with Dr Aimone Porri, who is the Laboratory Head for Herbicide Target and Weed Resistance Research at BASF, based in Germany. Aimone's work spans across several fields in the weeds resistance research space, including working as a Geneticist, Molecular Biologist, and Plant Biologist. At the time of this chat, he was in Australia visiting AHRI.
Aimone has collaborated with AHRI for several years. We talk about some of the significant work he has done, including , working on pyroxasulfone resistance in ryegrass, as well as work on cinmethylin and multiple herbicide resistant ryegrass.
We also chat about his current work in the weed resistance space, including his current paper on PPO mutations.
You can follow Aimone on Twitter here.
You can follow AHRI on Twitter here. To learn more about AHRI's research and team, check out the website here.
In our first episode back for AHRI Snapshots this year, we chat with Dr Hira Shaukat, who previously was an AHRI PhD candidate.
Hira worked on 3D mapping of soil moisture throughout her PhD. Part of her work involved looking at how farmers could utilise degraded land affected by salinity. This involved figuring out what soil conditions would be suit the plant Leptospermum nitens. Nectar from this plant is a source of high-value medicinal honey production and can provide income from agriculturally marginal lands.
This is a deviation a bit away from the themes of weed control we usually cover in this podcast, however, looking at farming systems holistically is important. Land not suitable for crops can be a haven for weeds to proliferate, which in turn can end up in the crop. Planting a valuable species like Leptospermum nitens can provide an additional income source, and reduce the land availability for weeds to grow.
Hira chats to us about her findings, as well as the other applications 3D mapping can provide growers.
You can follow AHRI on Twitter here. To learn more about AHRI's research and team, check out the website here.
This month on the podcast, we’re going to be finding out about the upcoming Herbicide Discovery and Development Conference, which is happening from January 18 to 20, 2023 at Curtin University.
Due to genetic resistance to many of the most used herbicides, the need for new ones is greater than ever.
This conference invites you to be part of the solution!
University of Mississippi Adjunct Research Professor, Steve Duke, will be the keynote speaker on Thursday January 19. He’ll be talking on “Molecular targets of herbicides and insecticides – are there overlaps that can be useful?” He joins us on this podcast to discuss what he'll be presenting on and gives an overview on what to expect from the conference.
You can get your tickets for the conference here.
You can follow AHRI on Twitter here. To learn more about AHRI's research and team, check out the website here.
On AHRI Snapshots this month, we have an exciting episode, as we catch up with AHRI’s incoming Director, Associate Professor Ken Flower.
Ken would be familiar to listeners as he’s been involved in AHRI projects for several years, contributing his substantial knowledge in no-till and agronomy to the AHRI Agronomy team.
He has a broad farming systems skillset, including in conservation farming and no-till systems, agronomy and cropping systems, precision agriculture, and weed control.
Ken’s vision for AHRI is to develop cropping systems with reduced dependence on herbicides for weed control. In this chat, we hear more about Ken’s background and what his plans are as AHRI Director when he formally begins his role in January.
You can follow AHRI on Twitter here. To learn more about AHRI's research and team, check out the website here.
Don't stop thinking about tomorrow is the theme of the upcoming Crop Protection Forum in Wagga Wagga next month.
In this AHRI Snapshots, we catch up with event organiser, Dr Lizzy Lowe, who is the Senior Extension Scientist for Cesar Australia.
This event is held annually, with this year’s partners being The Centre of Crop Disease Management (CCDM), the Australian Herbicide Resistance Initiative (AHRI), and The University of Melbourne with support from the GRDC.
Attendees will hear from Australia’s leading experts on insecticide, fungicide, and herbicide resistance at the upcoming Forum, which will be held on the 16th of November, at the Riverina Playhouse theatre in Wagga.
The latest research in weeds, disease, and insect resistance will be covered through presentations, panels and Q & A.
You can find out more about this event and buy your ticket here.
In this AHRI Snapshots we catch up with Martin Vila-Aiub, who was co-author on a recent publication that our latest AHRI insight covers. It’s all about how highly glyphosate resistant plants can’t compete.
AHRI researchers recently teamed up with Martin Vila-Aiub from Argentina and other researchers from Brazil to investigate the combination of crop competition and glyphosate on glyphosate-resistant goosegrass.
Competition alone from Soybeans reduced the growth of plants with the TIPS mutation by 95%, and the addition of glyphosate actually made these plants grow a little better!
You can also read the publication for this work here.
AHRI’s Dr Roberto Busi talks about his finding of velocity resistant wild radish in this podcast.
It’s not great news for growers – but knowledge is power.
At the end of 2019, Roberto Busi started a new herbicide resistance testing service based at UWA. Growers and agronomists sent in about 500 samples of ryegrass for testing as well as 121 samples of wild radish. Two of these wild radish populations, sampled by agronomists, had survivors to Velocity® and Roberto embarked on extensive glasshouse and field testing.
Resistance testing and using diverse tactics, as found in the WeedSmart Big 6, continues to be key in preserving chemistries into the long-term.
Take a listen and to learn more, check out the AHRI insight here.
In this episode, we're catching up with former AHRI PhD candidate, Nooshin Shahbazi, who is officially now a doctor, after her successful PhD completion.
Nooshin’s thesis is entitled “Use of Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) to detect and map weeds that grow taller than crops at harvest”.
We’re hear from Nooshin on her thesis findings and what the future might hold for LiDAR in weed detection in crops.
In this episode, we're catching up with former AHRI PhD candidate, Nooshin Shahbazi, who is officially now a doctor, after her successful PhD completion.
Nooshin’s thesis is entitled “Use of Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) to detect and map weeds that grow taller than crops at harvest”.
We’re hear from Nooshin on her thesis findings and what the future might hold for LiDAR in weed detection in crops.
AHRI's Dr Mechelle Owen has been collating data from the 2020 random resistance survey. This is part of a national project, with investment from GRDC.
Mechelle has been conducting these random surveys for a number of years and so she shares some of the trends in this interview she has identified from the 2015 survey results compared to these latest preliminary results from Western Australia.
Some of the results available and shared in this interview include the resistance status of barley grass, brome grass and wild radish.
One of the trends Mechelle identified was the spread of SU resistance in brome grass. Initially resistance was only picked up in the northern agricultural region in WA. In 2015, this resistance spread further south into the central and southern regions. This trend was again picked up in the latest 2020 data.
To hear more details about the results and trends, take a listen!
On this edition of AHRI Snapshots, we catch up with Professor Hugh Beckie, for the final time! Hugh is retiring from the role of AHRI Director at the end of this month.
Hugh has has worked in the field of herbicide resistance for more than 30 years and has been leading AHRI research as Director since 2018 after moving to Australia from his home country of Canada.
In this episode, we look back on what Hugh is most proud of during his time as AHRI Director.
In this episode of AHRI Snapshots, we’re catching up with AHRI’s Dr Danica Goggin about her latest paper which looks at cinmethylin metabolism in annual ryegrass.
Cinmethylin is a relatively new pre-emergent herbicide to Australian cereal cropping farming systems. While there hasn’t been any confirmed resistance of annual ryegrass to cinmethylin, there has been some populations which have had reduced sensitivity to it.
Danica joins us to explain what the paper authors found the cause to be of this reduced sensitivity and what this means for its use in the field.
You can read the paper in full here.
In this interview, we catch up with AHRI Senior Agronomy Researcher, Roberto Lujan Rocha to talk about his latest publication he worked on with Aniruddha Maity, who briefly worked at AHRI just before the pandemic.
This study, entitled Concurrent evolution of seed dormancy and herbicide resistance in field populations of dominant weed species in Western Australian cropping systems, evaluates the interaction among developing herbicide resistance, seed size and seed dormancy in three weed species in Western Australia.
You can follow Aniruddha Maityand Roberto Lujan Rochaon Twitter by clicking on their names.
For the first time in Western Australia, annual ryegrass from a cropped paddock was found to be resistant to glyphosate and paraquat (among other modes of action).
AHRI Senior Research Fellow Dr Roberto Busi joins us on the podcast today to give an overview of this finding as a pre-cursor to an upcoming WeedSmart webinar.
In this webinar, he will present the preliminary results he obtained in recent glasshouse trials, which aimed to characterise the resistance.
Farmanco Agronomist Consultant Brent Pritchard will provide some context on how this resistance evolved in the field.
Roberto will conduct two field trials in 2022. He will explain what treatments he’s planning to test, and attendees will have the opportunity to provide feedback on those treatment options.
You can register for this webinar which is occurring on March 30 by clicking on this link.
Glufosinate is an important and widely used non-selective herbicide active on a wide range of plant species.
Resistance evolution to glufosinate in weedy plant species, including the global weed Eleusine indica, commonly known as goosegrass, is underway.
At AHRI, Principal Research Fellow, Qin Yu and her team established the molecular basis of target-site glufosinate resistance in goosegrass.
In this first AHRI Snapshots podcast for 2022, Qin Yu joins us to explain the results in the paper: A naturally evolved mutation (Ser-59-Gly) in glutamine synthetase confers glufosinate resistance in plants.
This work reveals a naturally evolving point mutation in glutamine synthetase that confers resistance to glufosinate in Eleusine indica, known as goosegrass.
This is the last AHRI Snapshots for 2021! What a year it has been. In this episode we’re catching up with AHRI Director, Hugh Beckie to go over the highlights from AHRI this year.
We’ll also get an update on what the plans are for AHRI in 2022.
This is now our 6th season of the podcast. Thank you for listening this year and we look forward to bringing you more AHRI Snapshots in 2022!
Top AHRI insights
- Mixtures rock! Next level resistance testing tells a big story
- We’ve cracked the P450 code
- World first: glyphosate resistant capeweed
- Ryegrass resists Sakura® the same way wheat does
- 2,4-D synergises metribuzin
Top AHRI Snapshots podcasts
- Farmer Daniel Birch explains how resistance testing has helped in his planning
- Mixing herbicides could be the answer to Sakura® resistant ryegrass
- New recruit, Dr Candy Taylor, explains how she'll be tackling auxinic herbicide resistance research
- How the Area Wide Management project will increase our understanding of weed issues
- AHRI on show at WeedSmart Week & research update
We've got exciting news! AHRI is getting a new website next week!
AHRI Communications Officer, Jessica Scholle joins me on the podcast today to chat about this new development and we also give a broader communications update on AHRI.
You might've noticed we've been getting to know our AHRI researchers better through videos. We talk about the strategy behind this.
We also keep you in the loop with developments on our online courses through Diversity Era.
To ensure you're seeing the latest from AHRI, make sure you're following us on Twitter here.
You can do our latest updated course, HWSC 101 here.
And sign-up to our monthly blog, AHRI insight, here.
In this interview, we’re catching up with PhD candidate, Hira Shaukat.
Hira’s first paper has just been published in the Agriculture Water Management Journal. It’s entitled “Quasi-3D mapping of soil moisture in agricultural fields using electrical conductivity sensing”. The soil moisture measurement technique described in this paper has proven to be more efficient and accurate than other previous methods used.
Hira joins us today to provide an insight into her PhD project and how this new soil moisture measurement technique described in her first paper will help farmers gather more accurate and helpful data and make more informed decisions about their farming inputs like seeding rates and fertiliser inputs.
One of Hira's supervisors is Dr Ken Flower, who sits within the AHRI team and works closely with our researchers.
We're excited to report on the first paper from Hira Shaukat and congratulate her on some very interesting and practical results.
Links
Paper: Quasi-3D mapping of soil moisture in agricultural fields using electrical conductivity sensing
Twitter: Hira Shaukat, Ken Flower
The Crop Protection Forum is next week in Launceston, Tasmania!
In its 7th year, the AHRI, CCDM and Cesar Australia Crop Protection Forum will showcase the latest weeds, pests and disease research for riding out the inevitable storm of chemical resistance.
Our experts will explore the implications and solutions for reducing resistance in Tasmanian cropping systems.
In this podcast episode, Mark Gibberd from CCDM, Hugh Beckie from AHRI and Joshua Thia from University of Melbourne, representing Cesar Australia, provide a snapshot of what to expect at the forum.
Tickets are still available and you can get all the information for the event here.
In this podcast, we catch up with AHRI Agronomy Researcher Dr Yaseen Khalil about some of the key findings from two of his recent studies.
We learn about the effectiveness of different weed control tacts in serradella, which is a legume pasture species.
We also learn about how pasture phase farming can be used to reduce the annual ryegrass seed bank in a serradella crop.
Yaseen’s project is funded by the Grains Research and Development Corporation, which invests $1.5 million in AHRI each year to ensure Australian grain growers have access to world class research in strategies to mitigate weeds and control herbicide resistance.
On today’s AHRI Snapshots, we’re catching up with previous AHRI Masters student Martina Badano.
Martina worked with Dr Roberto Busi back in 2019 on rapid on-farm testing.
Her paper “Rapid On-Farm Testing of Resistance in Lolium rigidum to Key Pre- and Post-Emergence Herbicides” has just been published. We’re going to find out more about it.
Here's some more detail on the paper
Overreliance on herbicides for weed control is conducive to the evolution of herbicide resistance.
Lolium rigidum (annual ryegrass) is a species that is prone to evolve resistance to a wide range of herbicide modes of action. Rapid detection of herbicide-resistant weed populations in the field can aid farmers to optimize the use of effective herbicides for their control.
The feasibility and utility of a rapid 7-d agar-based assay to reliably detect L. rigidum resistant to key pre- and post-emergence herbicides including clethodim, glyphosate, pyroxasulfone and trifluralin were investigated in three phases: correlation with traditional pot-based dose-response assays, effect of seed dormancy, and stability of herbicides in agar. Easy-to-interpret results were obtained using non-dormant seeds from susceptible and resistant populations, and resistance was detected similarly as pot-based assays. However, the test is not suitable for trifluralin because of instability in agar as measured over a 10-d period, as well as freshly-harvested seeds due to primary dormancy.
This study demonstrates the utility of a portable and rapid assay that allows for on-farm testing of clethodim, glyphosate, and pyroxasulfone resistance in L. rigidum, thereby aiding the identification and implementation of effective herbicide control options.
Read the paper here.
Find out more about the resistance testing service at UWA run by Dr Roberto Busi here.
AHRI researcher, Dr Danica Goggin and others have recently discovered how ryegrass has evolved resistance to Sakura. It’s all about GSTs. Not the tax type, rather gluthione transferase (Danica explains in the podcast why the 'S' was dropped!).
Wheat uses GSTs to detoxify and tolerate Sakura, and ryegrass has now evolved to do the same thing, although the ryegrass is not as tolerant as the wheat.
The researchers found that it is up regulation of GSTs in the roots of the plant that causes the resistance.
Dr Danica Goggin joins us on the podcast to explain these findings.
You can read her paper in full here.
In this episode we catch up with AHRI Director Hugh Beckie who recently presented at WeedSmart Week in Esperance.
Hugh provides a snapshot into some of the practical research outcomes he was able to share with growers in Esperance in regards to recent results out of the AHRI agronomy team.
We also hear from Hugh about how Roberto Busi's resistance testing is going, what is happening in the 2,4-D space with Dr Danica Goggin and how the molecular team, lead by Dr Qin Yu is going.
We mentioned a few links in the podcast, including:
AHRI insight on Roberto Busi's resistance work
AHRI insight on Dr Qin Yu and Dr Heping Han's work on P450s
Make sure you're following us on Twitter so you don't miss out on any AHRI news!
Daniel Birch farms at Catalina Farms near Marchagee in WA's wheatbelt. He recently got resistance testing done through Dr Roberto Busi's resistance testing program.
Daniel also attended Roberto's last resistance workshop which took place last week in Dalwallinu.
In this interview, Daniel explained how the results from his resistance testing has assisted in helping to make planning decisions. He also provides an overview of what the workshop was like and the key learnings out of it.
You can read all about Roberto's resistance testing working in this AHRI insight.
On today’s AHRI Snapshots, we’re catching up with our newest AHRI team member, Dr Candy Taylor!
Candy has recently joined the team as a Research Associate. She’s going to be looking at understanding auxinic herbicide resistance dynamics.
This work is being supported by an ARC Linkage grant, with additional investment from Nufarm. This was successfully secured by AHRI’s Dr Danica Goggin and former AHRI Director Professor Stephen Powles.
So, for a little bit of background on Candy, she obtained her PhD in 2019 in the area of plant genetics and pre-breeding here at UWA and most recently worked as a UWA Graduate Research Assistant with Wallace Cowling and Janine Croser.
We're excited to have her on the team! Take a listen to learn more.
Today we’re catching up with CSIRO Scientist, Dr Rick Llewellyn. Rick is the Group Leader for Integrated Agricultural Systems and is managing the Area Wide Management, or AWM, project.
The project is about engaging local stakeholders in generating a better understanding of the weed issues in focus regions through identifying the spatial mobility of key weeds, their herbicide resistance status and how this might impact on local land uses.
Reports and Fact sheetsThe responsibility and management of weeds along Australian roadsides
Managing hard-to-control weeds along Australian roadsides – Guidelines for Managers
Social Attitudes to Area Wide Weed Management – Preliminary Report for Darling Downs
Social Attitudes to Area Wide Weed Management – Preliminary Report for Riverina
Social Attitudes to Area Wide Weed Management – Preliminary Report for Sunraysia
Social Attitudes to Area Wide Weed Management – Preliminary Report for Other Areas
This project is supported through funding from the Australian Government Department of Agriculture as part of its Rural R&D for Profit program and the Grains Research and Development Corporation and the Cotton Research and Development Corporation.
Today on AHRI Snapshots, we’re chatting with our new Communications Officer, Jessica Scholle. Jessica comes to us from Scitech, which is an Australian not-for-profit science centre based in Perth, WA. From traveling regionally to deliver face-to-face science presentations, to producing educational science material for online, Jess comes to us with a wealth of experience in science communications.LINKSIn the podcast, Jessica talked to us about how she has been learning about agriculture and herbicide resistance through our Diversity Era courses. You can do these courses too (and it's free!): http://diversityera.com/Follow Jessica on Twitter here: https://twitter.com/JessicaScholle1
In this episode of AHRI Snapshots, we’re catching up with AHRI Agronomy Research Associate Dr Yaseen Khalil.Yaseen has been working on pasture rotations, with his project finishing up in December this year. Today, we’re going to get an update on where the project is at so far and find out some of the key results.Yaseen’s project is funded by the Grains Research and Development Corporation, which invests $1.5 million in AHRI each year to ensure Australian grain growers have access to world class research in strategies to mitigate weeds and control herbicide resistance.Rotation explainerActivity 3: Short-term pasture rotational studiesAt the start of the trials, average ryegrass seed banks were 3773 seed/m2 at Bolgart and 9143 seed/m2 at North Brookton.• Rotation 1 (Wheat): Weed management options applied in this rotation, controlled 36 - 67% of the seedbank of the ryegrass at Bolgart and Brookton sites, respectively.• Rotation 2 (Fallow): Weed management options applied in this rotation, controlled 100% of the seedbank of the ryegrass at Bolgart and Brookton sites.• Rotation 3 (Lupin): Weed management options applied in this rotation, controlled 51 and 61% of the seedbank of the ryegrass at Bolgart and Brookton sites, respectively.• Rotation 4 (Serradella killed): Weed management options applied in this rotation, controlled 99.3 and 99.5% of the seedbank of the ryegrass at Bolgart and Brookton sites, respectively.• Rotation 5 (Serradella killed): Weed management options applied in this rotation, controlled 99 and 98.7% of the seedbank of the ryegrass at Bolgart and Brookton sites, respectively.• Rotation 6 (Serradella spray-topped): Weed management options applied in this rotation, controlled 85.6 and 92.2% of the seedbank of the ryegrass at Bolgart and Brookton sites, respectively.• Rotation 7 (Serradella spray-topped): Weed management options applied in this rotation, controlled 86.1 and 92.1% of the seedbank of the ryegrass at Bolgart and Brookton sites, respectively.
Dr Roberto Busi has been working hard on his GRDC invested project on testing resistant weeds. In this interview, he goes over some of the research updates and the workshops which are taking place this month in WA.Regional Workshops in WA datesEsperance (location to be advised), 2-5pm, Tuesday, June 22 – organised by the South East Premium Wheat Growers Association and coordinated by agronomists David Pfeiffer and Garren KnellGreen Range Country Club, 40521 South Coast Highway-2-5pm, Wednesday, June 23 – organised by Stirlings to Coast Farmers and coordinated by agronomist Garren KnellMerredin Community Resource Centre, 110 Barrack Street, 2-5pm, Thursday, June 24 – organised by the Merredin and Districts Farm Improvement Group and coordinated by agronomist Geoff FosberyLiebe Group Agricultural Research and Education Facility, Dalwallinu, 9am-12 noon, Thursday, August 5 – organised by the Liebe Group and coordinated by the Liebe Group.Perth WorkshopJune 11, Fri: UWA Campus at glasshouses (southern end of campus) at 7 am
This week on AHRI Snapshots, we caught up with AHRI Agronomy Lead, Dr Mike Ashworth. Mike has been leading projects on mitigating herbicide resistance, looking at serradella as a break phase crop and blue lupin control in narrow leaf lupins.While some of these projects are still in progress, Mike is able to share with us some preliminary results, including new information on time of sowing recommendations.
In this episode, we’re catching up with AHRI’s Dr Heping Han to talk about some recent research he published on 2,4-D syngergising metribuzin. Australian farmers and agronomists have previously observed synergy between phenoxy herbicides, such as 2,4-D and PSII herbicides, also known as Group C or Group 3 herbicides such, as metribuzin. Thanks to this new AHRI research, we now know why this is the case. Dr Heping Han joins us to explain this research and what it means for farming systems.The Grains Research and Development Corporation (GRDC) invests $1.5 million in AHRI each year to ensure Australian grain growers have access to world class research in strategies to mitigate weeds and control herbicide resistance.
On this episode of AHRI Snapshots, we’re catching up with AHRI PhD Candidate, Nooshin Shahbazi.In her latest paper, Nooshin has looked at the capability of Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) sensors to detect and locate weeds. The results showed the detectability of the target at different scanning distances from the LiDAR was directly influenced by the size of the target and its orientation toward the LiDAR. You can read her paper here: https://ahri.uwa.edu.au/publications/assessing-the-capability-and-potential-of-lidar-for-weed-detection/The Grains Research and Development Corporation (GRDC) invests $1.5 million in AHRI each year to ensure Australian grain growers have access to world class research in strategies to mitigate weeds and control herbicide resistance.
In this special edition of AHRI Snapshots, we’re talking about some ground-breaking research out of AHRI which has this week been published in the prestigious journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Science of the USA. So, what is the big news? AHRI researchers have identified a new glyphosate resistance mechanism which has similarities to cancer drug resistance in humans.AHRI researchers who worked on this paper include former AHRI PhD scholar Lang Pan (pictured) who is now a Professor at Hunan Agricultural University, China, AHRI Principal Research Fellow Qin Yu and former AHRI Director, Professor Stephen Powles. Former AHRI Director, Professor Stephen Powles joined us on the podcast to discuss this exciting research further.__________________________________________________________________Paper: https://ahri.uwa.edu.au/publications/an-abcc-type-transporter-endowing-glyphosate-resistance-in-plants/AHRI insight: https://ahri.uwa.edu.au/a-new-glyphosate-resistance-mechanism-with-similarities-to-cancer-drug-resistance/Media EnquiriesPaper Author Emeritus Professor Stephen Powles is available for interviews for radio, print and television.Mobile: 0418 927 181E-mail: stephen.powles@uwa.edu.au
On this episode of AHRI Snapshots, we caught up with AHRI Masters Graduate Ci Sun. She published her first paper as first author recently on the adaptive value of flowering timing in wild radish. The paper has some important key takeaway messages which we get into in this interview.You can read Ci's paper here: https://ahri.uwa.edu.au/publications/the-adaptive-value-of-flowering-time-in-wild-radish-raphanus-raphanistrum/We also mentioned the WeedSmart Big 6 to look at diverse tactics for weed control. You can check out the Big 6 here: https://www.weedsmart.org.au/big-6/Presenter & producer: AHRI Communications Lead Jessica Strauss
We’re well into 2021 and the team at AHRI has been really busy with research and extension. AHRI Director Hugh Beckie joins us on the podcast to provide us with an update on research outcomes out of AHRI, as well as an overview of his new paper on an agricultural weed assessment calculator which can be used in Australia. NEW RESEARCH OUT OF AHRIWorld first: glyphosate resistant capeweed: https://ahri.uwa.edu.au/world-first-glyphosate-resistant-capeweed/Agricultural Weed Assessment Calculator: An Australian Evaluation: https://ahri.uwa.edu.au/publications/agricultural-weed-assessment-calculator-an-australian-evaluation/Cytochrome P450 CYP81A10v7 in Lolium rigidum confers metabolic resistance to herbicides across at least five modes of action: https://ahri.uwa.edu.au/publications/cytochrome-p450-cyp81a10v7-in-lolium-rigidum-confers-metabolic-resistance-to-herbicides-across-at-least-five-modes-of-action/
In this edition of AHRI Snapshots, we’re chatting with AHRI Agronomy Team researcher, Dr Yaseen Khalil about his latest paper which identified the world’s first glyphosate resistant capeweed. You can read AHRI insight on this topic here: https://ahri.uwa.edu.au/world-first-glyphosate-resistant-capeweed/And you can read the paper in full here: https://ahri.uwa.edu.au/publications/identification-of-the-first-glyphosate-resistant-capeweed-arctotheca-calendula-population/
A group of researchers led by Heping Han from AHRI, including researchers from Bayer and Zhejiang University in China have identified the P450 gene responsible for cross resistance to herbicides of at least five modes of action. The gene is CYP81A10v7. Paper author, Prof Steve Powles joins us in this AHRI Snapshots to provide a history of this research and what the finding means in both a fundamental and practical sense. AHRI recently published a paper on this and last week Peter Newman wrote an AHRI insight on it. You can read the insight here: https://ahri.uwa.edu.au/weve-cracked-the-p450-code/________________________________________________________Podcast Presenter & Producer: Jessica Strauss
This is our last AHRI Snapshots podcast for 2020! On our final episode, AHRI PhD Candidate Nooshin Shahbazi joins us to talk about her latest paper "Comparison of crop and weed height, for potential differentiation of weed patches at harvest". She has been looking at differentiating between weeds and the crop at harvest time based on the plants height differences, with the aim of identifying weed species that persist in the field until harvest and grow taller than the crop plants, so that these weed species could be mapped at the next stage of the project and treated.With the increasing challenges associated with herbicide-based weed control due to chemical residue and herbicide resistance, innovative approaches to weed control are becoming more sought after.If you'd like to check out Nooshin's paper, you can read it here: https://ahri.uwa.edu.au/publications/comparison-of-crop-and-weed-height-for-potential-differentiation-of-weed-patches-at-harvest/Producer and Presenter: Jessica Strauss
Today on AHRI Snapshots we catch up with AHRI’s Dr Roberto Busi. He recently published a paper alongside AHRI's Prof Hugh Beckie which entitled: Are herbicide mixtures unaffected by resistance? A case study with Lolium rigidum. He joins us to tell us what he found.Paper:https://ahri.uwa.edu.au/publications/are-herbicide-mixtures-unaffected-by-resistance-a-case-study-with-lolium-rigidum/
In this edition of AHRI Snapshots, we catch up with Colorado State University weeds researcher, Associate Professor Todd Gaines. Todd has previously worked out of AHRI and we thought it would be good to catch up with him to see what he’s focusing on at the moment. Todd recently had a paper feature in the Special Edition of Herbicide Resistance in Plants, edited by AHRI's Prof Hugh Beckie, entitled “Omics Potential in Herbicide-Resistant Weed Management”. We find out about that and Todd also shares an exciting finding on 2,4-D resistance which will be published in an upcoming paper.
This year, AHRI is hosting the 2020 Crop Protection Forum on Tuesday December 8th. This event is a collaboration between AHRI, CCDM and cesar and is designed to deliver the latest research to agronomists and industry in a one-day event. This event was first held in Perth in 2015 when it was hosted by AHRI. The event has since been delivered in Wagga, Dalby, Adelaide, and Moama in Victoria and has proved to be a valuable forum for agronomists to engage with crop protection researchers and discuss the regional issues arising and how to tackle these problems.Today on AHRI Snapshots, WeedSmart Southern Extension Agronomist Greg Condon who presented at Moama's event gives an overview of what to expect, and one of last year's attendees, Birchip Cropping Group's Kelly Angel gives her perspective. To see the program for this event and purchase tickets, click here: https://ahri.uwa.edu.au/crop-protection-forum-2020/
In this week's podcast, we catch up with AHRI Research Officer, Roberto Lujan Rocha who gives an update on where the agronomy team is at with a range of their projects. We talk about how the team is looking at whether certain weeds like ryegrass and wild radish evolve to evade harvest weed seed control tactics and also cover work the team is doing in pre-emergent herbicides. In the podcast, Roberto mentions a range of resources that discuss the work of the agronomy team. ‘Intelligent’ weeds evolve to evade controls: https://grdc.com.au/news-and-media/news-and-media-releases/national/2020/may/intelligent-weeds-evolve-to-evade-controlsFighting weeds with plants in the west: https://groundcover.grdc.com.au/weeds-pests-diseases/weeds/plant-establishment-critical-to-out-compete-weedsThe interaction between wheat (Triticum aestivum), time-of-seeding and choice of pre-emergent herbicide on annual ryegrass (Lolium rigidum) growth and competition: https://grdc.com.au/resources-and-publications/grdc-update-papers/tab-content/grdc-update-papers/2020/02/the-interaction-between-wheat-triticum-aestivum,-time-of-seeding-and-choice-of-pre-emergent-herbicide-on-annual-ryegrass-lolium-rigidum-growth-and-competition.This research Roberto talks about in this podcast will be presented by AHRI Weed Agronomy Lead Mike Ashworth at the Crop Protection Forum in Perth in December (get your tickets here: https://ahri.uwa.edu.au/crop-protection-forum-2020/) and also at GRDC Updates in 2021.
In this episode of AHRI Snapshots, we catch up with Professor Martin Vila-Aiub to find out about his recent paper "Fitness of Herbicide-Resistant Weeds: Current Knowledge and Implications for Management" which was recently published in a special edition of Herbicide Resistance in Plants (you can read that here: https://ahri.uwa.edu.au/publications/herbicide-resistance-in-plants-2/).Martin also tells us about how he's been utilising his time in Argentina during the pandemic (he's been doing lots of writing!).
On this edition of AHRI Snapshots, we’re catching up with AHRI’s Dr Mechelle Owen about her latest paper “Lessons learnt: crop-seed cleaning reduces weed-seed contamination in Western Australian grain samples” and also find out what’s in the pipeline for her upcoming survey work in Western Australia.If you're a grower in WA and would be keen on being involved in Mechelle's survey work, send her an email: mechelle.owen@uwa.edu.au________________________________________________________________Podcast producer & host: Jessica Strauss
Today on AHRI Snapshots we’re catching up with AHRI’s Dr Roberto Busi to find out more about his latest paper on the loss of trifluralin metabolic resistance in ryegrass plants exposed to prosulfocarb recurrent selection.
We recently published AHRI insight highlighting the research outcomes out of the AHRI 5 project, which has GRDC investment(you can check it out here: https://ahri.uwa.edu.au/on-a-good-thing-dont-stick-to-it-the-directors-cut/. We’re now entering the next five-year project: AHRI 6, which also has GRDC investment. AHRI Director Professor Hugh Beckie joins us on the AHRI Snapshots podcast today to reflect on the major achievements out of AHRI 5 and give us some insight into what’s on the agenda for the new AHRI project.
This week on AHRI Snapshots, we’re chatting with AHRI researcher, Dr Danica Goggin on her latest findings into 2,4-D research. The findings have been published in her paper: "Plasma membrane receptor-like kinases and transporters are associated with 2,4-D resistance in wild radish". This paper was recently published in the Annals of Botany, Volume 125. Peter Newman recently wrote AHRI insight on this paper and has done an explainer video. Pete said it was one of the trickiest papers he’s had to get his head around. You can check out the insight here: https://ahri.uwa.edu.au/24-d-resistance-its-all-about-perception/Danica joins us to break down this complex paper.
In this interview, we’re going to be chatting with DPIRD grain researcher, Martin Harries, about a six-year focus paddock survey he led. The survey collated data from 184 paddocks spanning 14 million hectares of cropping land in Western Australia. It was all made possible with a DPIRD and GRDC investment and the collaboration of 13 farming groups; including the Facey, Liebe, Mingenew-Irwin groups and WANTFA.Martin has recently published the weeds aspect of this research as part of his PhD and reported that we’re having some great success with weed control in Western Australia.You can check out the AHRI insight on this research here: https://ahri.uwa.edu.au/epic-wa-focus-paddock-project-shows-were-having-a-win/
On this edition of AHRI Snapshots, we catch up with Agri-Science Queensland research scientist, Dr Adam Jalaludin about the results from a GRDC-funded survey he conducted in the Northern region on problem weeds. He shares the key takeaways from the research, as well as some practical information for growers and agronomists.
On this AHRI Snapshots we learn all about the weed chipper!We chat with agricultural engineer Dr Andrew Guzzomi from the University of Western Australia’s School of Engineering about the weed chipper. Andrew, together with his colleague Dr Carlo Peressini, engineered the weed chipper’s development as part of a multidisciplinary team.The concept of the Weed Chipper came about when a group of growers were discussing weed control in a fallow field in southern Queensland – this prompted the idea of a rapid response tyne to chip out weeds. The group of agricultural engineers and weeds researchers led by Dr Michael Walsh (who also is interviewed on this podcast), Associate Professor and Director of Weed Research with the University of Sydney, along with grower and industry advisors, built and tested prototypes of the Weed Chipper, and paved the way to its commercialisation.The project received funding from the Grains Research and Development Corporation and was created in response to the growing concerns about herbicide resistance and the associated difficulties with fallow weed control.
On this week’s AHRI Snapshots we chat with Dr Gurjeet Gill. He’s an Associate Professor in Agronomy & Weed Science at the School of Agriculture, Food and Wine at University of Adelaide.Gurjeet, along with his colleague Ben Fleet recently completed some research that says if you don’t get a knockdown in, it’s not a problem. Delaying the sowing of wheat or barley to get a knockdown in some cases lead to a reduced number of grass weeds in crop, but the weeds in the later sown crop often set more seeds than the lower number of weeds in the early sown crop.This work was also covered in AHRI insight last week by Peter Newman - check it out here: https://ahri.uwa.edu.au/dont-delay-sowing-to-beat-ryegrass/
On this week's podcast, we’re chatting with WA Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development weed researcher Dr Harmohinder Dhammu, who along with colleagues Abul Hashem, Catherine Borger, Glen Riethmuller, Nerys Wilkins and Pete Gray, with GRDC investment, have quantified the impact of five weed species of emerging importance in the WA grains belt. This work was recently written about in AHRI insight by Cindy Benjamin: https://ahri.uwa.edu.au/new-comers-causing-trouble/
In this edition of AHIR Snapshots, AHRI researcher Dr Roberto Busi is helping us to understand new products before they come to market. He recently investigated the product Cinmethylin which is a new BASF product called Luximax. He found that Cinmethylin controls multiple resistant ryegrass, among other helpful things which we’ll get into. Peter Newman covered this work for AHRI insight as well, so we’ll link in the podcast if you’d like to learn more. Check out the details here: https://ahri.uwa.edu.au/luximax-gets-its-own-new-box/
Today we’re catching up with Facundo Cortese who has been working out of AHRI alongside Roberto Busi. He recently spoke at the Perth GRDC Crop Updates on how herbicide mixtures and crop competition provide excellent control of annual ryegrass and mitigate herbicide resistance.
In this week's podcast, we catch up with visiting scholar, Aniruddha Maity, also known as Maity.He's working on the seed biology and ecology of brome, wild barley, wild oat and ryegrass and connecting them with their herbicide resistance. Maity is originally from India and is a PhD candidate at Texas A&M University (@TAMU on Twitter). He's come to AHRI with the Endeavour Leadership Program.You can follow Maity on Twitter here: https://twitter.com/Its_Maity
The first resistance to HPPD, also known as Group H, herbicides in wild radish has now been discovered by AHRI researchers led by PhD candidate Huan Lu. Wild radish is just the third weed in the world to evolve resistance to this group of herbicides. In this podcast, we caught up with Huan to learn more about the results published in his paper “Evolution of resistance to HPPD-inhibiting herbicides in a wild radish population via enhanced herbicide metabolism”. You can read the AHRI insight and find the link to the paper here: https://ahri.uwa.edu.au/group-h-hppd-resistant-wild-radish/
For the first AHRI Snapshots podcast of 2020, we caught up with Associate Professor Ken Flower about a recent paper he co-authored with AHRI Director Hugh Beckie and AHRI’s Agronomy Lead, Mike Ashworth.With glyphosate currently under intense scrutiny worldwide from an environmental and health perspective, the authors of the paper “Farming without glyphosate” contemplated possible scenarios of farming without our most important and popular herbicide.Take a listen to the podcast below to learn more. You can read the paper here:https://ahri.uwa.edu.au/publications/farming-without-glyphosate/
In our final AHRI Snapshots podcast for 2019, we caught up with AHRI’s Dr Yaseen Khalil about his papers the “Effect of crop residues on interception and activity of prosulfocarb, pyroxasulfone, and trifluralin” and “Pyroxasulfone efficacy for annual ryegrass control is affected by wheat residue height, amount and orientation”. Cindy Benjamin has also written an AHRI insight on these two papers which you can read here: https://ahri.uwa.edu.au/whats-the-sticking-point-better-pre-em-efficacy-in-stubble-retention-systems/You can follow Yaseen on Twitter here: https://twitter.com/ykhalil2013
Today on AHRI Snapshots, we catch up with Colorado State University Associate Professor, Dr Todd Gaines about metabolism-based glyphosate resistance.Peter Newman recently wrote AHRI insight on this topic. Back in 2011, then Ord River agronomist, Andrew Cripps, was approached by a farmer asking why his Barnyard grass had survived glyphosate.Dr Todd Gaines and Professor Steve Powles visited the northern irrigation region, took samples, and confirmed glyphosate resistance.Recently, further research at AHRI by Chinese researcher Dr Pan Lang, under the direction of AHRI’s Qin Yu, confirmed the world’s first case of metabolism-based glyphosate resistance.Todd shares his experience from back in 2011 and provides some insights into what this discovery means.
Cesar is partnering with the Australian Herbicide Resistance Initiative (AHRI) and the Centre for Crop and Disease Management (CCDM) to deliver the 2019 Crop Protection Forum. Attendees will learn about the latest research into insecticide, herbicide and fungicide resistance affecting the grains industry. Take a listen to this podcast with Cesar's Jessica Lye and AHRI's Hugh Beckie to find out more about the forum. To get your tickets, visit the website here: https://www.cpf2019.com/
Cesar is partnering with the Australian Herbicide Resistance Initiative (AHRI) and the Centre for Crop and Disease Management (CCDM) to deliver the 2019 Crop Protection Forum. Attendees will learn about the latest research into insecticide, herbicide and fungicide resistance affecting the grains industry. Take a listen to this podcast with Cesar's Jessica Lye and AHRI's Hugh Beckie to find out more about the forum. To get your tickets, visit the website here: https://www.cpf2019.com/
Today we catch up with AHRI’s Dr Qin Yu about the paper “Do plants pay a fitness cost to be resistant to glyphosate?” This paper was published earlier this year and is written by Martin Vila-Aiub, Qin Yu and Steve Powles. This paper reviewed the literature to understand the effects of glyphosate resistance on plant fitness as the molecular, biochemical and physiological levels. Dr Qin Yu explains further.
In this podcast, Cindy Benjamin catches up with Charles Sturt University (CSU) Professor Leslie Weston to get the next instalment on their work. You can read the insight and listen to the podcast on Leslie and her team's earlier work here: https://ahri.uwa.edu.au/crops-are-doin-it-for-themselves/The last podcast focused on cereals, while this one looks at the mechanisms at play in canola.Leslie led a large project at CSU alongside Associate Professor Dr Chris Preston at The University of Adelaide, to investigate several aspects of crop competition.PhD candidate James Mwendwa and the project team conducted field trials at Wagga Wagga comparing the weed-suppressive effect of six hybrid and one open-pollinated canola cultivars, both in-crop and post-harvest, in 2014.The experiment was repeated in 2015, a drier year with much lower weed pressure, using the same cultivars plus two new cultivars. In 2015 and 2016, another site at Condobolin was added to test the same cultivars in a lower rainfall environment.Learn more from taking a listen to the podcast with Leslie below. You can also read the AHRI insight on this work here: https://ahri.uwa.edu.au/revealing-canolas-super-powers/
For this AHRI Snapshots podcast, we catch up with AHRI and WeedSmart Western Extensions Agronomist, Peter Newman, who wrote one of our latest AHRI insights on the best harvest weed seed control tool for you. He also developed a model which allows you to input your own data to figure out what options you might consider. You can read the insight here: https://ahri.uwa.edu.au/whats-the-cost-of-hwsc-for-you/And you can download the model here: https://ahri.uwa.edu.au/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Estimated-Cost-of-HWSC-calculator-Sept19-1.xlsx
In this podcast, with chatting with AHRI PhD candidate Huan Lu about his paper “Metribuzin resistance in a wild radish population via both psbA mutation and enhanced metabolism”. The authors of this paper are Huan Lu, Qin Yu, Heping Han, Mechelle J. Owen, and Stephen B. Powles.This paper identifies multiple mechanisms: as well as psbA gene mutation there is a non-target site resistance mechanism of enhanced metabolism. In his current studies, Huan Lu is documenting that this non-target site enhanced metabolism resistance endows resistance to other very different herbicides. This information will become available in Huan’s next publication.You can read the AHRI insight on this work here: https://ahri.uwa.edu.au/is-there-an-invisible-gorilla-in-your-paddock/
Research agronomist John Broster joins us on AHRI Snapshots this week to give an overview of the annual resistance testing report he releases each year through Charles Sturt University. You can find out more about the service here: https://www.csu.edu.au/plantinteractionsgroup/herbicide-resistance
Queensland Government Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry Principal Research Scientist, Michael Widderick recently visited AHRI in Perth. Michael gave a great overview of his projects and we also discussed opportunities to collaborate with AHRI. Michael's team are working on crop competition (among other projects), focusing on sorghum, pulse crops, and manipulation of crop competitiveness to suppress typically summer emerging weeds in winter crops. There are some similarities with the crop competition work our agronomy team are doing. Michael explains some of the barriers to crop competition adoption in the Northern region. We also discuss how the drought in the Northern region impacts research outcomes.
Our latest AHRI insight which will be published in the next few days, ‘Crops are doin’ it for themselves’, written by Cindy Benjamin, looks at work around crop competition out of Charles Sturt University. The main project is led by Professor Leslie Weston at CSU and Associate Professor Dr Chris Preston at The University of Adelaide, to investigate several aspects of crop competition. The AHRI Insight delves into just one set of experiments within the broader project, that investigated the ‘impact of crop cultivar on in-crop and post-harvest weed suppression’. Today we’re chatting with Leslie, who will give an overview of this important work.
Our extension officer Kirrily Condon recently wrote an AHRI insight entitled “Thermal weed control – just hot air, or site-specific reality?” (read it here: https://ahri.uwa.edu.au/thermal-weed-control-just-hot-air-or-site-specific-reality/)which looked at work by a team from the University of Sydney. Guy Coleman and his colleagues reviewed 170 papers, which demonstrated that mechanical weed control options, like tillage, can use significantly less energy than thermal options, like heat, to kill weeds. Herbicide energy use sits somewhere in the middle. We chat with Guy to find out a bit more.
Today on AHRI Snapshots, we're chatting with AHRI Director Hugh Beckie about the recent AHRI review paper "Herbicide Resistance Management: Recent Developments and Trends". This paper covers recent developments and trends in herbicide-resistant weed management in agronomic field crops. This paper was written by AHRI’s Director Hugh Beckie, Dr Mike Ashworth and Dr Ken Flower and has helped shape the AHRI agronomy program going forward. You can read the paper here: https://ahri.uwa.edu.au/publications/herbicide-resistance-management-recent-developments-and-trends/
On this week's podcast, we’re chatting with Darling Downs-based consultant from PulseAg Consulting, Kerry McKenzie. He has done work on pulse crop agronomy and the implications for weed competition and he’s going to give us an overview of the results out of the Darling Downs and Emerald trials. Kerry's previous agronomy work has helped inform researchers from the University of Queensland Gulshan Mahajan and ‘Sunny’ Chauhan with ways to give chickpea crops a competitive advantage against annual ryegrass. *NB The audio of some of Kerry's interview is a little bit hard to hear in a few sections as he didn't have access to a landline phone.
In this edition of AHRI Snapshots, we're chatting with AHRI's Dr Roberto Busi about his GRDC-funded Focus Farms Project which recently wrapped up in March this year. The project was based in the Kwinana Port Zone in Western Australia. Its primary aim was to demonstrate the value of growers testing for herbicide resistance. Roberto gives a great overview of, how the project came about; what he discovered; and how growers can utilise this information. Find out more here: https://ahri.uwa.edu.au/podcast/importance-of-resistance-testing-galvanised-in-grdc-funded-focus-farms-project/
AHRI PhD student, Jinyi Chen, studied the inheritance of trifluralin resistance with target site resistance in ryegrass. She found that resistance is single gene recessively inherited. This means that both parents must have a copy of the resistance gene for the progeny to be resistant.Recessive resistance inheritance is rare in the world of herbicide resistant weeds. Nearly all other cases of target site herbicide resistance involve semi-dominance.This could be part of the reason why trifluralin resistance in ryegrass was slower to evolve than other types of herbicide resistance. However, there is always more than one resistance mechanism.Jinyi joined us on the podcast one last time before she left for post-grad work in Canada. Take a listen!
AHRI's Agronomy Lead, Mike Ashworth, provides an update on the trial work the agronomy team has been doing. We find out a bit more details about some of the preliminary results from trials conducted in 2018 and we also get a snapshot of what they're looking at this year. Take a listen!
Researchers Gulshan Mahajan, Amar Matloob, Barbara George-Jaeggli, Michael Walsh and Bhagirath 'Sunny' Chauhan have studied this same phenomenon in an emerging weed in the northern grains region – African turnipweed. In this podcast we chat with Sunny Chauhan to learn more. Working with two biotypes of African turnipweed – one from the higher rainfall environment of Dalby, Queensland and one from the medium rainfall environment of St George, Queensland – the researchers wanted to know if there were differences in the way that these two populations respond to environmental stress. They also wanted to gather intelligence about the germination biology of this weed, which is emerging as a potential threat to cropping in the northern region. Take a listen for more information!
AHRI's Dr Danica Goggin has found in her recent research that resistance in wild radish to 2,4-D is in fact not metabolic resistance. Take a listen to this podcast to learn more about how she figured this out and what it means. You can then head on over and read AHRI insight on this research, which hopefully will make much more sense after Danica's explanation! Here's the link: https://ahri.uwa.edu.au/24-d-resistance-in-radish-is-not-metabolic-resistance/
Rainfall is obviously a key driver in leaching herbicides from stubble before they dissipate, but as we all know rain can be unpredictable. Fortunately, research has shown that some pre-emergent herbicides require far less rainfall to move off stubble and into the soil where they can control germinating weeds.So, what happens when there’s no rainfall? Research has also shown that some herbicides can remain on stubble for long periods and still be active when rain occurs up to two weeks post-application (two weeks was the longest period tested). This is a pretty valuable attribute for dry sowing – as understandably growers can be reluctant to spend money on premium pre-emergent herbicides if there’s no rain in sight!This latest research by Dr Yaseen Khalil from AHRI compared the effect of rainfall on leaching of Sakura (pyroxasulfone), Arcade/Countdown (prosulfocarb) and trifluralin applied to wheat stubble.In a nutshell, Sakura was the best option in heavy stubble loads, leaching into the soil with just 5 mm rain, even where rainfall was delayed up to 14 days after application. Arcade/Countdown generally required more rainfall to leach into the soil, and only with rainfall up to seven days after application. There appeared to be little trifluralin leached from stubble, even with rainfall one day after application.Take a listen to hear more from the researcher himself, Dr Yaseen Khalil.
Some new research by AHRI PhD student, Huan Lu, has shed some light on Atrazine resistant wild radish and the results have some very practical applications for growers and agronomists.The most common target site mutation that causes Atrazine resistance in wild radish is the 264 mutation, the same mutation that gave us TT Canola. They have very high resistance to Atrazine and as it turns out they are super-sensitive to Bromoxynil, requiring only about a third of the Brom rate that it takes to kill susceptible wild radish. Wild radish with the 264 mutation is also resistant to metribuzin.Huan Lu also discovered a new target site mutation, the 274 mutation that causes modest levels of resistance to Atrazine, Metribuzin and Diuron but not Bromoxynil.
AHRI was a GRDC initiative which started back in 1998 under the guidance and direction of Professor Stephen Powles. This coming Sunday the AHRI Team will be hosting a dinner with AHRI stakeholders to celebrate AHRI's 20 year milestone. Many significant discoveries and practice changes have come about through AHRI being in existence. AHRI Centre Manager Lisa Mayer provides an overview of some of the significant achievements AHRI has had over the last 20 years and also delves into the future direction the research group is heading in.
It’s been a big year for AHRI. Former AHRI Director, Stephen Powles retired from the position earlier in the year, with Professor Hugh Beckie from Canada taking on the role. We also saw the opening of the GRDC-funded Agronomy Laboratory at the University of Western Australia. Research is at the core of what we do though and we didn’t do that in halves this year either! Not only did AHRI produce significant papers, but other weed science groups nationally also made important discoveries. In this podcast, AHRI Director Hugh Beckie gives an overview of the year that was and provides some insights into what's to come for AHRI in 2019.
Today on AHRI Snapshots, we’re speaking with Development Officer Glen Riethmuller, from the Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development Western Australia, about spray swathing and desiccating canola for ryegrass seed set control.
In this edition of AHRI Snapshots, we’re speaking with Director of Weed Research at the Plant Breeding Institute, University of Sydney, Michael Walsh about a recent research paper on crop competition and its influence on harvest weed seed control on ryegrass. We know crop competition is great at suppressing weeds, but what we have learned from this research is that crop competition makes other weed control techniques, such as harvest weed seed control work better. This research was published in the paper “Influence of Crop Competition and Harvest Weed Seed Control on Rigid Ryegrass (Lolium rigidum) Seed Retention Height in Wheat Crop Canopies”. Our Southern Extension Agronomist Kirrily Condon recently did AHRI insight on this topic too. You can read about it further here: https://ahri.uwa.edu.au/behind-every-successful-hwsc-approach-is-crop-competition/
The AHRI research paper: Glyphosate resistance in Tridax procumbens via a novel EPSPS Thr-102-Ser substitution", by Li et al, was published in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry 2018.This paper is a collaborative effort with researchers coming from China to AHRI and with modelling from Alex Nyporko from Kiev, Ukraine. Lead author Dr Jingbo Li from Hunan University and second author Dr Qiong Peng were visiting fellows in AHRI supported by the China Scholarship Council.In this research, it was first established that Tridax, a global tropical weed species, evolved glyphosate resistance in the Ord River irrigation area in north-western Western Australia.This is the first report of glyphosate resistance in Tridax. The mechanism of glyphosate resistance was studied. Various possible resistance mechanisms were NOT responsible for resistance (EPSPS gene amplification, different glyphosate uptake or translocation). In this glyphosate-resistant Tridax population, the glyphosate resistance mechanism is a mutation in the EPSPS gene causing substitution at amino acid 102 (Thr-102-Ser).This is the first time that a single amino acid substitution at Thr 102 has been reported to endow glyphosate resistance. Note that Tridax is a tetraploid and this Thr-102-Ser amino acid substitution, as expected in a tetraploid species, confers only a modest level of glyphosate resistance. This finding of a resistance endowing amino acid substitution at amino acid 102 adds to the many reports of glyphosate resistance due to amino acid substitutions at Proline 106. The 102 site is within the highly conserved and catalytically important EPSPS region.We have previously reported in Eleusine that a double mutation at amino acids 102 and 106, the TIPS mutations, confer high-level glyphosate resistance but at substantial fitness cost (Yu et al Plant Physiology 2015).Dr Heping Han explains the research in the podcast. You can also learn more about this research in AHRI insight: https://ahri.uwa.edu.au/rare-but-predictable-a-new-target-site-mutation-for-glyphosate-resistance-discovered/Authors: Jingbo Li, Qiong Peng, Heping Han, Alex Nyporko, Tymofii Kulynych, Qin Yu, Stephen Powles.
Jinyi Chen is an AHRI PhD Candidate studying trifluralin resistance mechanisms in annual ryegrass. Annual ryegrass is a very serious crop weed in Australia causing significant yield loss. The pre-emergence herbicide trifluralin has been used since the 1970s in Australia to control ryegrassThe first trifluralin resistant annual ryegrass plant was reported in 1995. Recently, increasing trifluralin resistant ryegrass populations were reported in Western Australia and South Australia. This was covered in our recent AHRI insight #105 (https://ahri.uwa.edu.au/alphabet-cross-resistance-in-south-australia/).In her research, Jinyi has found that all the four annual ryegrass populations or biotypes tested contained metabolic resistance mechanisms, with target site resistance being involved in two of them. Take a listen to the podcast to learn more about Jinyi's work and some of the possible solutions to dealing with trifluralin resistance. We recently released an AHRI insight on Jinyi's work which you can read here: https://ahri.uwa.edu.au/metabolic-trifluralin-resistance/
In this podcast, we’re getting an insight into the 21st Australasian Weeds Conference, which this year was held in Manly.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.AHRI Communications Lead, Jessica Strauss, was lucky enough to attend and caught up with Dr Michael Widderick, who is the Principal Research Scientist at the Queensland Department of Agriculture and Fisheries. He presented at the conference on “Research priorities for weed suppression by crops in Australia”.
In this podcast we catch up with AHRI Research Officer Roberto Lujan Rocha. This is the first time Roberto has been on the podcast. We learn about what the AHRI agronomy team, led by Mike Ashworth, is up to with their research trials and get a better understanding of how the new GRDC Agronomy Lab is operating since its June opening.
Chaff lining has been increasing in popularity in the Harvest Weed Seed Control (HWSC) scene over the past two seasons. A survey of WeedSmart subscribers showed the percentage of growers using chaff lining increased from 6% in 2016 to 26% in 2017.Despite this rapid uptake of chaff lining, there really was no data available specific to its efficacy!However, there's now compelling research data coming through for chaff lining and it seems you get really good value for money and it does suppress weed emergence.In brief, this GRDC funded (US00084) research by members of the northern region weeds team, John Broster (Charles Sturt University, Wagga Wagga), Michael Walsh and Annie Rayner (University of Sydney, Narrabri) and Annie Ruttledge (Department of Agriculture and Fisheries, Toowoomba, Queensland) showed that:- As chaff levels increase, the emergence of weeds from under the chaff decreases;- Small-seeded broadleaf weeds (eg. sowthistle) are more easily suppressed than annual ryegrass; and- Chaff type can influence weed emergence, depending on the chaff proportion of the crop.You can read the AHRI insight in full on this research here (https://ahri.uwa.edu.au/chaff-liningtoo-good-to-be-true/), but first, take a listen to the podcast!
AHRI Director Hugh Beckie recently moved over from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada, to take on the position of AHRI Director. In this podcast we get to learn more about Hugh's professional life and some of his interests outside of work too. Hugh also shares with us his vision for AHRI in its new chapter. Hugh is an international expert on herbicide resistance in plants, with a focus on management strategies, tactics, and practises. He is a Fellow of the Weed Science Society of America and Canadian Weed Science Society, and recipient of the QEII Diamond Jubilee Medal.The AHRI Team have been getting to know Hugh over the last few weeks and now it's your chance to learn more about him. Take a listen!
Barley Grass RIM came about through the GRDC-funded ‘Maintaining profitable farming systems with retained stubble’ initiative that included an objective of promoting pro-active weed management strategies. Brome grass has become a critical ‘driver’ weed in several grain growing districts under no-till systems and in some areas such as Upper Eyre Peninsula barley grass is having a big influence on the cropping system. Using the RIM approach to testing the best IWM strategies has been valuable for ryegrass management over a long period, so it was an obvious step to provide agronomists, farmers and researchers with a RIM tool for these other major grass weeds. The new Barley Grass RIM has been developed using the AHRI RIM tool by CSIRO with support from the University of Adelaide and University of Western Australia, funded by GRDC.CSIRO Adelaide's Agricultural Economist Dr Marta Monjardino explains the functions and benefits of the new Barley RIM in this podcast.
While 2,4-D is an old herbicide, there's actually a huge knowledge gap that researchers like AHRI’s Dr Danica Goggin are trying hard to fill in a bid to find ways to overcome resistance to this herbicide group in weeds like wild radish.In her research, Danica identified a very plausible resistance mechanism in two wild radish populations. She then went on to test the translocation theory in another nine 2,4-D resistant populations of wild radish from WA.Danica characterised the resistance profile of the 11 resistant populations to find that resistance to 2,4-D and dicamba appears to be capped.Looking more closely at these 11 resistant populations also revealed that while all 2,4-D resistant populations were also resistant to dicamba, the level of resistance to the two herbicides varied.This suggests there’s no consistent cross-resistance to these two auxinic herbicides within a population.Conducting the same experiment with the radioactive 2,4-D applied to the leaves, Danica also found that translocation varied enormously both between and within resistant populations.In fact, several of the resistant populations translocated 2,4-D just as efficiently as susceptible populations.So, what’s going on?This research proved that wild radish has other, more complex mechanisms at its disposal to avoid the effects of excessive free radical production following exposure to phenoxy herbicides.To find out more, take a listen and also read the AHRI insight here: https://ahri.uwa.edu.au/digging-deep-into-24-d-resistance/!
Professor Stephen Powles hung up his hat as AHRI Director last week. In this interview, AHRI Comms Lead Jessica Strauss asks Steve about his time at AHRI and what the future holds for the research group. Take a listen!
In this podcast, we're celebrating the 100th edition of AHRI insight!Music: bensound.com
There are few herbicide options for sowthistle control in chickpea crops, making the perfect recipe for a good ol’ sowthistle blowout. Despite all of this, the latest research by Michael Widderick, Adam McKiernan and Greg Harvey from QDAF with GRDC investment is finding that chickpeas can win the competition against sowthistle if they stack their deck. Growing a chickpea crop at narrow row spacing and high crop density in northern cropping regions can greatly reduce sowthistle seed production without reducing chickpea yield. Take a listen to find out more!Music: bensound.com
In this podcast, Jessica Strauss chats with then AHRI PhD Candidate Gayle Somerville about her paper “Modeling the impact of harvest weed seed control on herbicide resistance evolution”.The modelling in this paper was a component of the PhD research of AHRI PhD student Gayle Somerville, who is now a postdoc at Arhus University in Denmark.Harvest weed seed control (HWSC) is a term that describes a range of techniques to capture and destroy weed seed on standing weed plants infesting crops at the time of grain harvest. HWSC techniques have become adopted by many Australian grain growers, with AHRI research in HWSC led by Michael Walsh (now at University of Sydney). HWSC is currently being evaluated in other parts of the world. The objective of HWSC is to target weed seed at grain harvest to minimise weed seed injection into soil seedbanks and reduce weed densities over time.It's well understood that herbicide resistance evolution in weeds would be much slower if any herbicide resistant individuals were annually prevented from injecting seed back onto crop fields. There are examples of small farms where hand-weeding of weed individuals surviving herbicide treatments has greatly delayed or prevented herbicide resistance evolution. HWSC is for very large farms. In this modeling work, Gayle Somerville evaluated the value of HWSC in minimising the rate of herbicide resistance evolution. The modeling clearly showed the benefit of HWSC in minimising resistance evolution. There is a real benefit in having the diversity tactic of the non-chemical HWSC in minimising the rate of resistance evolution. HWSC reduces weed numbers over time and helps achieve greater sustainability and longevity of important herbicide resources.Music: bensound.com
In this podcast, we chat with InterGrain Research Officer Hannah Robinson. Not too long ago she completed her PhD at the University of Queensland (which was funded by GRDC), looking primarily at identifying the genes controlling root architecture in barley. Some significant discoveries were made during this time, including identifying a key gene in barley that enables the plant to access water stored deep in the soil during droughts. Hannah shares how this discovery was made and the potential impacts. She also discusses her work at InterGrain, sharing how she tries to ensure crop traits discovered through research can be incorporated into new varieties. Music: bensound.com
Tony Swan is back to discuss his latest research findings! We've previously highlighted in AHRI insight and the podcast, research by Tony Swan and the team from CSIRO that demonstrated double breaks (ie. growing two break crops in sequence) were more effective in reducing annual ryegrass numbers to manageable levels than a single break crop or continuous wheat.The research team took this one step further in a project involving FarmLink in southern NSW from 2014-2017, comparing rotation strategies between disc and tyne seeding systems in a stubble retained system and their impact on ryegrass, yield and profitability.We'll be publishing an AHRI insight which will go into further detail about the results, but you can get the highlights in this podcast!Music: bensound.com
This podcast looks at trifluralin resistance, with AHRI Director Stephen Powles. The results out of a recent AHRI, entitled Novel Tubulin Mutations Conferring Resistance to Dinitroaniline Herbicides in Lolium rigidum are the primary focus. Steve explains that this study clearly and comprehensively establishes that target site resistance to dinitroaniline herbicides, such as trifluralin, can be endowed by a mutation changing the alpha tubulin gene at amino acid 243, changing Arg to either Met or Lys. He explains how this works, as well as looking at how common trifluralin resistance is; the differences between target site and metabolic resistance, as well as the implications of these findings in the field.You can read the paper in full here: https://ahri.uwa.edu.au/publications/novel-tubulin-mutations-conferring-resistance-to-dinitroaniline-herbicides-in-lolium-rigidum/But you might like to listen to the podcast first, as its one of the more tricky concepts to get your head around!Take a listen!Music: bensound.com
In this podcast, we chat with Professor Martin Vila-Aiub, who is currently on sabbatical at AHRI from the University of Buenos Aires. Martin is a good friend of AHRI, visiting a number of times on sabbatical and also completing his PhD here between 2001-2005. As you'll learn in more detail in this podcast, in his sabbatical period this time at AHRI, he will write a review on the impact of resistance endowing mutations on plant fitness. We also hear from Martin about the differences in farming between Argentina and Australia and we talk conceptually about what would happen if there were more fitness penalties.Music: bensound.com
Every five years, Mechelle Owen, one of our dedicated AHRI researchers, undertakes the massive task of visiting 500 fields in Western Australia just before harvest to sample seeds of surviving weeds for resistance testing with GRDC support.So far, we have reported on the results from the latest survey in AHRI insight, looking at ryegrass resistance. You can check it out here: https://ahri.uwa.edu.au/has-herbicide-resistance-in-ryegrass-in-wa-plateaued/In this podcast, Mechelle gives an overview of her results so far. We'll be publishing further podcasts and blog posts on Mechelle's research as the data is analysed and published. Music: bensound.com
AHRI was recently lucky enough to be visited by Professor Baruch Rubin from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Baruch completed a sabbatical in AHRI 15 years ago, so we were delighted to welcome him back for his short visit. In this podcast, Baruch commentates on night spraying and sheds light on some of his research in this area. He also gives insights into how farming systems in Israel compare to those in Australia.Music: bensound.com
In this podcast, Jessica Strauss chats with Dr Richard Smith, who is an Associate Professor of Cropping Systems Ecology and Management at the University of New Hampshire and currently on sabbatical leave at AHRI.Dr Smith’s research addresses the roles that ecologically-informed management and crop plant diversity play in promoting species interactions that benefit agriculture and weed management. In addition to his research and teaching responsibilities, Dr Smith is also an Associate Editor for the journals Weed Research and Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems. Jessica talks to Richard about his work and also finds out about some of the core differences between farming in Australia and New Hampshire, where Richard is based.Music: bensound.com
This podcast with AHRI Principal Research Fellow Dr Qin Yu focuses on explaining some of the more tricky aspects of the paper:A double EPSPS gene mutation endowing glyphosate resistance shows a remarkably high resistance costThis paper was a collaboration between AHRI researchers Heping Han, Qin Yu, and Steve Powles, as well as past AHRI researchers Adam Jalaludin and Martin Vila-Aiub.AHRI researcher Heping Han and others with GRDC support recently found a large fitness penalty in glyphosate-resistant crowsfoot grass. We have previously reported on this glyphosate resistance here. At the time we could see by looking at the pictures of the plants that the ones with the homozygous TIPS mutation were severely stunted. The researchers have now further investigated this and found that the homozygous TIPS plants have 50% reduction in seed set and this escalates to 85% in plants that are in competition with a rice crop.The TIPS mutation that causes high-level glyphosate resistance affects plant fitness. The TIPS mutation is a double mutation of the glyphosate target site, the 102 and the 106 mutation. The 106 mutation has been found in a number of species and has no fitness penalty associated with it, but the 102 + 106 mutation comes with a big fitness penalty.Most of the known glyphosate resistance mechanisms cause fairly low level, 4 to 8-fold, resistance. The TIPS mutation causes huge, 140 to 180-fold resistance with some plants surviving more than 57 L/ha glyphosate. The last AHRI insight of 2017 focuses on explaining this paper. You can read it here. By listening to this podcast first, you'll have a good understanding of the background information and better understand the commentary in AHRI insight and the paper.Music: bensound.com
With the exciting news of Hugh Beckie being announced as the new AHRI Director (commencing in July 2018), we thought it might be fitting to release this interview we did when he was here in Perth.Hugh discusses the issue of wild oats in Western Canada and the tactics being used to control this weed. We then hear from AHRI extension officer Paul McIntosh, who gives us a local perspective, discussing the issues which the northern region are facing with this weed (which is also known as black oats).Dr Hugh Beckie will commence as AHRI Director in mid-2018Music: bensound.com
Weed population simulations can be useful to predict the effects of alternative management practices on herbicide resistance evolution. Almost all previous simulations have ignored the possibility of within-field spatial structure in a weed population, instead, making the implicit assumption of perfect dispersal and spatial homogeneity in population density and genetics.The effects of this simplifying assumption have not been examined, despite the fact that dispersal limitations and spatial structure within the population are likely to occur and to affect the evolution of resistance. Therefore, previous AHRI researcher, Dr Gayle Somerville, with her team, developed a new spatially-explicit model called SOMER, and examined how changing the following factors affected the predicted evolution of resistance: the degree of spatial resolution used in the model; whether resistance was semi-dominant or fully-dominant; distances of pollen and natural seed dispersal; and inadvertent collection and grain harvester weed seed dispersal (GHWSD).Simulations showed that spatial resolution is important when modelling HR evolution, with the size of sub-population divisions, the pollen dispersal parameter, the level of dominance, and GHWSD all being important factors in predicting the rate and type of HR evolution.The results show that accounting for spatial structure and dispersal does affect predictions of herbicide resistance evolution, with the non-spatial model generally predicting faster resistance evolution compared to the more realistic equivalent spatial model. Most importantly, GHWSD increased the speed of HR evolution.The spatial model also allowed the team to investigate the dynamics of density and genetic structure within patches of herbicide-resistant weeds, and we found that resistance genes were spread several times wider than the visible patch and that homozygous mutations were commonly found in more centrally located weeds.The team concluded that an ‘integrated spatial modelling’ approach that accounts for spatial structure should be considered when modelling HR evolution, and the evolution of resistance in general.Hear from Gayle in this podcast explaining the research! Music: bensound.com
Dr Catherine Borger (pictured above) from the Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development talks about one of the GRDC projects she's working on in this podcast with the host, Jessica Strauss. The project, run by Dr Gurjeet Gill from the University of Adelaide is looking closely at a range of weed species to find out more about the basic ecological facts about them.Dr Borger said there were many weed species out there where there's a lack of understanding about weed population growth rates; their seed set; their ability to shed seeds at different times and the effect on harvest weed seed management. These are some of the core areas being investigated in the project.This podcast looks closely at brome grass and annual ryegrass. There is lots of data on ryegrass, but it was used as a point of comparison to the other weeds being investigated in the project.Ryegrass still is Australia's biggest weed problem, however, Dr Borger said brome grass is catching up.Take a listen to the podcast to learn more about these two weeds and how to manage them.Music: bensound.com
Recently Jessica Strauss caught up with Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development Principal Research Officer Dr Abul Hashem to talk about research he and Dr Catherine Borger have done on the interaction between soil pH, weeds and crops. Soil acidity limits productivity on approximately 50% of Australia’s agricultural land and several important weed species have a competitive advantage over broadacre crops on soils where the surface soil pH level is less than 5.5 or the subsurface pH is less than 4.8.Dr Hashem said efforts to improve soil pH had a two-pronged effect on crop production. “Firstly, agricultural crops yield better when they are grown in soils where the pH is in the optimal zone and secondly, crops are better able to compete with weeds. Having lower weed numbers in-crop means the herbicides applied are more likely to be effective and also there is less potential for weed seed to be added to the soil’s seed bank.”In this podcast, Dr Hashem explains there's still further work needed in this space to explain exactly what's going on, but the results do show a clear benefit when applying lime to crops. Music: bensound.com
Research by Cathryn O’Sullivan from CSIRO is showing that some weeds release chemicals from their roots that slow down the bacteria that are essential to the nitrogen cycle, retaining nitrogen in the ammonium form that weeds can potentially take up faster than crop plants.In this research, Cathryn focused on some common Australian weeds, including wild radish, brome grass, wild oats and annual ryegrass. Wild radish was particularly strong in being able to manipulate the nitrogen cycle, demonstrating why it's so competitive with the crop. For more on this research, take a listen to Jessica Strauss chatting with Cathryn O'Sullivan on the podcast below. Music: bensound.com
Sowthistle is the kind of weed which can be a pain all-year-round. It's particularly problematic for farmers in the North-Eastern part of the country. Jessica Strauss talks to Principal Research Scientist from the Queensland Department of Agriculture and Fisheries, Michael Widderick, about the strengths and weaknesses of this weed and how to manage it effectively, based on Michael and other's research.
Dr Todd Gaines recently visited AHRI and took time out to explain the significance of AHRI Director Stephen Powles' award. Steve recently won the American Chemical Society International Award for Research in agrochemicals.He's the first Australian to win the award, which is given to a scientist who has made outstanding contributions to the field of agrochemicals at the international level, with their vision and sustained contribution having opened new horizons for investigators in their field and beyond.Steve was recognised for his long-standing research contribution to identifying the role of cytochrome P450 enzymes in endowing herbicide resistance in plants.Steve was nominated for the award by Todd Gaines. Todd previously was a postdoctoral student of Steve, who spent three years as a researcher at UWA before returning to the US.Todd discusses what he's been up to and also goes into some detail about what P450s are as well. Take a listen!Music: www.bensound.com
CSIRO wheat breeder Dr Greg Rebetzke talks to Jessica Strauss about the research being conducted into developing a new high vigour wheat. What if we could have a wheat variety that could play the yield game and the competition game? What would that look like? Perhaps a dwarf wheat, with a long coleoptile, prostrate growth habit (like barley), early vigour, leaves like solar panels, and of course, high yield. Well, that’s exactly what Greg is attempting to develop as part of a GRDC-funded high vigour wheat project. High vigour kinds of wheat are not only good for competing with weeds; they also serve to shade the soil to reduce evaporation and ultimately increase water-use efficiency.To find out how this breeding program is progressing, and what difference high vigour wheat makes to ryegrass seed set, take a listen. You can also read more about this project in AHRI insight: http://ahri.uwa.edu.au/how-a-new-wheat-variety-could-compete-with-weeds-like-jonah-lamu-did-on-the-field/Music: www.bensound.com
You may have used the handy Ryegrass RIM AHRI developed. Now, thanks to the efforts of CSIRO and GRDC, as well as AHRI, new RIM models for both brome and barley grass will become available to use by farmers, agronomists and researchers. CSIRO Farming Systems Scientist Rick Llewellyn explains why the new models have come about, how they can be used and the benefits of using them in this podcast with Jessica Strauss.For some more info on Ryegrass RIM: it's a hands on, user-friendly decision support software that allows farmers and advisors to evaluate the long-term cropping profitability of strategic and tactical ryegrass control methods, on the long-term and at the paddock scale. RIM lets you test your ideas: How can you run your ryegrass down and profit up? New rotation? New technique? You can check it out here: http://ahri.uwa.edu.au/research/rim/Music: bensound.com
We're really fortunate to have excellent Chinese visiting scholars and Ph.D. students at AHRI. In this podcast, Steve Powles chats with Jessica Strauss about how the win-win program started. Dr. Yu Qin, is the senior researcher at AHRI and manages all the Chinese scholars and Ph.D. students. She regularly visits China and recruits students to continue their studies at AHRI. Steve explains how that all began. We also learn in more detail about what visiting scholars Dr. Qiong Peng and Dr. Xia Yang are focusing on in their research here at AHRI. We also learn more about our Ph.D. students, Jinyi Chen, Huan Lu and Lang Pan.Music: bensound.com
Much like we promote rotating herbicides to keep them working, Mike Ashworth explains in this podcast how mixing up how non-herbicidal weed tactics are applied, helps maintain their effectiveness too. AHRI is currently looking further into this with research work being conducted at our Shenton Park research facility. Mike chats to podcast host Jessica Strauss about this research, and also provides some great information for both agronomists and farmers to take on board in regards to non-herbicidal tactics, such as 'disruptive rotations'. Find out more by taking a listen.Music: bensound.com
Some excellent research conducted by Stephen Hole, under the watchful eye of Professor Steve Powles at the University of Adelaide in the mid-1990’s investigated the microbial degradation of propyzamide and another similar herbicide, carbetamide. Enhanced microbial degradation is where the soil bacteria that can eat a particular herbicide build up to very high levels so when the herbicide is applied it is broken down very quickly, effectively reducing the half-life of the herbicide.What they found was:Where carbetamide or propyzamide were used twice in the same winter growing season, the second application was roughly half as effective as the first.In another study, carbetamide efficacy was reduced from one growing season to the next when it had been applied to a field for seven consecutive years prior to the field research.Four years without carbetamide returned soil bacteria levels to similar levels to untreated soil.What has not been found so far:Any evidence of enhanced degradation of propyzamide that persists from one year to the next.Take a listen to the podcast to hear from Stephen Hole himself. And maybe you'll be inspired to take up where Stephen left off all those years ago!It's a bit hard to listen to this one as Stephen is out on his farm and the phone line was not spectacular, but it's worth hearing this snapshot on his research! Music: bensound.com
Not so long ago, harvest weed seed control (HWSC) was only used by a minority of early adopting grain growers. Now it has gone mainstream and pretty soon just about everyone will be doing it.This is the result from a national Australian GRDC grower survey reported in a recent scientific publication by Michael Walsh from University of Sydney. Every few years GRDC fund a large grower practices telephone survey. The most recent survey was conducted by CSIRO in 2014, and they collaborated with Michael to design the HWSC questions.The survey revealed 43% of Australian grain growers are currently practicing HWSC and this is set to rise to 82% within the next five years. Narrow windrow burning is currently the most commonly used practice by 30% of growers. Jessica Strauss speaks with Peter Newman about the paper findings. Music: bensound.com
Unfortunately, large parts of Western Australia, South Australia and Queensland are as dry as a London newspaper! In this podcast, Jessica Strauss chats to Dr David Minkey about spraying stressed weeds in dry conditions. The info comes from GRDC funded research conducted by Dave Minkey and John Moore at DAFWA in the 90s. They set out to determine what factors influence herbicide rate. They looked at moisture stress, relative humidity, temperature, and days since 5mm of rainfall. As you would guess all of these factors had an effect, but it appears that moisture stress had the biggest impact. The rate of glyphosate to kill moisture-stressed wheat was more than 10 times that of wheat growing with adequate moisture.In a dry year, we’re often faced with the whole kit and caboodle – moisture stressed weeds, high temperatures, low relative humidity and long durations between rainfall events. There’s no quick fix, but by understanding the driving factors, it can help us to pick the best time to spray weeds.This research also reminds us that we’re likely to see surviving weeds at harvest, which is why we believe that perhaps this year is the year to adopt chaff lining at harvest.Take a listen to the podcast for a more detailed overview!Music: bensound.com
Short black, long black, double shot, double break? Coffee preference is a little like crop sequences.Perhaps you’re a ‘short black’ wheat-canola type, strong on inputs?Or a ‘long black’ type who likes to dilute their rotations a bit more?Or are you a ‘double shot’, throwing in a few break crops in a row for maximum effect?When it comes to managing annual ryegrass populations, Tony Swan and the research team from CSIRO Plant Industry and FarmLink, have shown that ‘double shots’ are the key. Growing two break crops in sequence (broadleaf crop, hay crop or long fallow) was more effective in reducing resistant ryegrass numbers to manageable levels than a single break crop or continuous wheat over a three-year rotation. And it can still be profitable.Hear more from Tony Swan in this podcast and read about the research in detail here: http://ahri.uwa.edu.au/double-breaks-a-double-shot-at-annual-ryegrass/Music: bensound.com
AHRI Director Stephen Powles discusses the latest paper out of the research group "Harvest Weed Seed Control Systems are Similarly Effective on Rigid Ryegrass" and talks about the positive results. You can read it in full here: http://ahri.uwa.edu.au/publications/harvest-weed-seed-control-systems-are-similarly-effective-on-rigid-ryegrass/Jessica Strauss also catches up with Peter Newman to discuss the new free online course on HWSC through WeedSmart's Diversity Era. The course offers nine modules which can be completed over a two hour period, or at your leisure, with some quizzes to keep you on your toes! You'll be full bottle on everything HWSC once you've completed it! You can find all of the courses through Diversity Era here: www.diversityera.comMusic: bensound.com
The AHRI Team is in Denver, Colorado for the Global Herbicide Resistance Challenge Conference! Jessica Strauss catches up with Peter Newman and gets an insight on how his presentation on communications went, as well as finding out what other research and developments are being presented at the conference. Music: bensound.com
Colin Hutchinson developed the chaff deck and has had great success with it. He farms out of Tammin in which is in the southern part of Western Australia.Take a listen to find out more about how he's managed to keep the weeds at bay and the reasons behind why he believed the chaff deck is a great tool.To get more info on all our podcasts, head on over to the AHRI website here: http://ahri.uwa.edu.au/home/podcasts/Music: bensound.com
With it being double knock season, paraquat might be a herbicide you'll be adding to your program. Steve Powles chats with Jessica Strauss about how he first discovered paraquat resistance and the implications of this. He also imparts some handy tips for herbicide use during seeding. Take a listen!Music: bensound.com
Our latest published paper is Inheritance of 2,4-D resistance traits in multiple herbicide-resistant Raphanus raphanistrum (wild radish) populations. In this podcast, Roberto Busi explains the findings of his study.In his research, Roberto found the inheritance of 2,4-D resistance in two Raphanus (wild radish) populations in which previous AHRI research had well characterised 2,4-D resistance. In both populations, the 2,4-D resistance was found to be clearly inherited as a single, nuclear (pollen transmitted) dominant or near-dominant gene trait. It is noteworthy that the 2,4-D resistance gene trait is strongly dominant, whereas often single gene resistance is semi-dominant. This clear single gene dominant 2,4-D resistance will aid AHRI researcher Dr Danica Goggin in her work to identify the mechanism of 2,4-D resistance in Raphanus.You can access the paper here: http://ahri.uwa.edu.au/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/Inheritance-of-24-D-resistance-traits-in-multiple-herbicide-resistant-Raphanus-raphanistrum-populations.pdfMusic: bensound.com
Adam Jalaludin discusses his PhD work into Crowsfoot Grass resistance to glufosinate. To find out more about Adam's work, check out the AHRI insight on his research here: http://ahri.uwa.edu.au/glufosinate-resistance-we-know-what-its-not/Music: bensound.com
Herbicide resistance, it's a tricky beast! Simulation modelling is looking to help us understand it better and in shorter time frames though (phew). AHRI PhD Candidate Gayle Somerville explains the findings in her paper "Why was resistance to shorter-acting pre-emergence herbicides slower to evolve?". AHRI Director Steve Powles also gives us some context to how this research can be applied in the field.If you'd like to find out more about Gayles paper, you can read it here: http://ahri.uwa.edu.au/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/Why-was-resistance-to-shorter-acting-pre-emergence-herbicides-slower-to-evolve.pdfMusic: bensound.com
AHRI researcher Roberto Busi explains his research and its implications on using pre-emergent herbicides. Timely advice for growers and agronomists out there!We recently did a series on pre-ems for the AHRI insight blog. You can read more on it here: http://ahri.uwa.edu.au/mini-series-pre-emergent-a-tale-of-four-herbicides-season-finale-episode-4-redemption/ Music: bensound.com
While Steve Powles provided a great overview on cleaning seeds before Christmas, this podcast looks more closely at the different options available to get your seed clean and weed free! Jessica Strauss chats with AHRI researcher Mechelle Owen about her recent trials & best advice for cleaning seed. Hannafords' Gary Hamdorf explains how mobile cleaning works & Perry Hodgkiss from Bruce Rock Seed Cleaners in WA explains the elusive gravity table & more! For more on seed cleaning, you can also check out this AHRI blog: http://ahri.uwa.edu.au/clean-seed/Music: bensounds.com
Wild Oats, while not as much of an issue as Ryegrass, are becoming an increasing problem weed for Australian croppers. In this podcast, AHRI Director Steve Powles and AHRI Extention Officer Greg Condon discuss how herbicide resistance came about in this weed and how to manage it. Hosted by: Jessica StraussMusic: www.bensounds.com
Steve Powles chats to host Jessica Strauss about the most recent AHRI Insight #74, which focuses on the research of Agpro Management owner Ed Riggall. Steve also gives an assessment on HWSC being used across the country.
This Snapshot with Steve delves into the science behind AHRI Insight #72 on low dose phenoxy resistance. It will provide details to help you understand the research better. If you'd like to read the paper you can find it here: https://t.co/wWBP4Y7L9t Music by: www.bensounds.com