Best practice management of pasture weeds in Southern Australia

Abstract

Weeds are known to have a great financial impact on the Australian grazing industry. Integrated weed management is widely considered to be the solution to the pasture weed problem. Through surveying the indigenous knowledge of graziers this project sought to identify the best management practices for pasture weeds of southern Australia and the challenges that producers face in implementing them. In addition, this project also aimed to validate the producer perceptions which were relied upon for much of this study and identify the pasture weeds of most concern to graziers throughout southern Australia. The project consisted of five major research activities which were: key informant interviews; a postal survey sent to 7,000 graziers; an on-farm validation study; telephone interviews; and producer focus groups. Although preliminary in nature, the results of the validation study indicated that producers are able to report most weed densities to within 5% canopy cover. However, many producers were unable to identify the annual grass weed vulpia ('Vulpia' spp.). Respondents to the postal survey reported an estimated 328 plants as undesirable species, dominated by annual broadleaf weeds. The most commonly reported species included capeweed, Paterson's curse, saffron thistle, blackberry and barley grass. The best management practices were examined for the most commonly reported weeds in four functional groups.