Arable Extra 140: Efficacy and crop safety of different herbicides against key grass weeds and arable crops

Growers are reminded to report any grass weeds that appear unfamiliar or could resemble black-grass (Alopecurus myosuroides). Early reporting remains one of our strongest tools for protecting the industry.

Watch the recording for a webinar with FAR Senior Field Officer Ben Harvey on managing herbicide resistance pre-autumn sowing, covering what is herbicide resistance and methods to reduce the risk of herbicide resistance.

Read the booklet from our September 2024 spring field events here. 

This report describes 2023 data from FAR’s ongoing herbicide screening trial at Chertsey, mid-Canterbury, where the efficacy and crop safety of a number of new and old herbicides were tested against several problematic weed species and in a number of common crops. This is the third consecutive year that FAR has run this trial, after a nine-year break.

This Arable Extra discusses the extent of herbicide resistance in weeds on arable farms in New Zealand based on the results of five years of random weed surveys.

Velvetleaf is still a concern and monitoring is ongoing.

If you missed our recent field day at our Kowhai Research Farm in Lincoln, check out the booklet here. 

The use of stale and false seedbeds fell out of favour with the advent of herbicides. However, they are now a resurgent tool for weed management, often providing simple, effective and low cost weed control. This Arable Extra outlines how these traditional weed control techniques can be used alongside modern ones. 

Minimising the weed seed rain reduces the size of the weed seedbank and consequently the populations of in-crop weed plants. This Arable Extra outlines the behavior of the weed seedbank, including seed half-life and dispersal.

As herbicides become less effective and availability reduces, physical weeding is becoming a popular topic of conversation. This arable update outlines the differences between the two main classes of mechanical weeders: contiguous weeders that weed the whole field surface, and incontiguous weeders that treat the intrarow and interrow with different weeding tools.