[Pil-pc-oceania] Herbicide resistance is catching (CRC/Farmonline)

[Deb Guildner]

      Breaking Rural News : AGRIBUSINESS AND GENERAL  
     
     Herbicide resistance is catching 
      Australia
      Monday, 3 December 2007 

      The latest Weeds CRC research confirms what farmers have feared for sometime: that herbicide resistance can be 'caught' from a neighbouring farm.
      But the organisation is warning farmers to work with their neighbours, not blame them.

      Dr Chris Preston, of the Weeds CRC and the University of Adelaide, says resistent genes can come in over the boundary fence in the form of pollen, airborne seeds, in hay or in seed for sowing.

      His research found the spread of herbicide resistance depends largely depends on how the weed reproduces.

      Pollen from some weeds, such as annual ryegrass, can drift for several kilometres on the wind, while other weeds, like wild oats, need humans to move them around the landscape. 

      Weeds with 'parachute seeds' pose a similar drift problem.

      "When it first became widespread, herbicide resistance was regarded as something of a 'social disease' in the bush," Dr Preston said.

      "People thought you got it because you were a bad farmer - and if you found some, you kept quiet about it.

      "In fact the opposite is true. It was the good farmers who were first to see it - as they were the first to use minimum till and herbicide technology well." 

      Once resistant weeds emerge and build up in the weed population, the risk of them escaping the farm onto another property increases if the weeds remain unchecked.

      "Different tillage methods and different herbicide timing are exposing a new spectrum of weeds, some of which were never a problem before - but now they have found a fresh niche," Dr Preston said. 

      Often this has nothing at all to do with herbicide resistance - but simply reflects selection pressure imposed by changes in farming practices.

      "The answer lies in zero tolerance for problem weeds. It means patrolling, and patrolling again, for any signs of survivors which may have withstood treatment with herbicides - and then hitting them with something else to stop seed-set," Dr Preston said. 

      The Weeds CRC says the only answer to preventing herbicide resistance is to adopt integrated weed management.

      "Adopting a strategy that combines chemical and non-chemical tactics for weed control is important for the long term sustainability of Australia's cropping systems," Dr Preston said.


           

     
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