Australia
June 23, 2015

A new pre-emergent herbicide manual focusing on herbicide behaviour in soil is providing grains advisers across Queensland and New South Wales with the background science to effectively control problem weeds and tackle the on-going challenge of herbicide resistance.

Commissioned by the  Grains Research and Development Corporation (GRDC), the new manual ‘Soil behaviour of pre-emergent herbicides in Australian farming systems - a reference manual for agronomic advisers’,  covers critical information needed to optimise results from pre-emergent herbicides.

The manual is co-authored by ICAN consultants Mark Congreve (pictured) and John Cameron and reflects the increased use of pre-emergent chemistries due to widespread resistance issues among knock down and in-crop selective herbicides.

“Much of the material included is highly specific and has previously been relatively hard to access in a format that meets the needs of grains advisers,” Mr Cameron said.

“As such, it is a document that many grains advisers will find contains a significant amount of new information which will add value to their day-to-day recommendations.”

Primary author Mark Congreve, said the manual covers much of the base science that underpins product label information. 

“The manual does not replace the labels, but assists advisers in interpreting how the pre-emergent herbicides are likely to perform and to understand why they have performed as they have in specific situations,” Mr Congreve said.

The manual covers issues from stubble and crop interception, loss pathways such as photodegradation and volatilisation, the position of the herbicide in the soil, the influence of soil texture and cation exchange capacity, solubility, binding to clay and organic matter, the influence of soil moisture and herbicide half-life and breakdown mechanisms which impact on crop rotation.

The manual is available as a download from the GRDC’s website at http://www.grdc.com.au/SoilBehaviourPreEmergentHerbicides

Website: http://www.grdc.com.au

Published: June 23, 2015