WeedSmart Podcast show

WeedSmart Podcast

Summary: Welcome to the hub of the WeedSmart Podcast! Each fortnight we'll whip around the cropping regions focusing on weed control and issues which have cropped up (pun intended). Your hosts, Jessica Strauss and Peter Newman will be poking fun at themselves and each other. We look forward to giving you a snappy, informative update from the comfort of your tractor, ute, or wherever you may be on the road or farm. Producer: Jessica Strauss Hosts: Jessica Strauss and Peter Newman Intro music credit for podcasts prior to June 2018: www.bensound.com

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Podcasts:

 Robotics, 70 ft blade plough and weed chipper on display at Emerald WeedSmart Week | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 00:50:05

Join your co-hosts Jessica Strauss and Peter Newman to recap Emerald WeedSmart Week, which took place in Central Queensland on August 13-15. Jessica was on the ground at the event and spoke to attendees and presenters about their farming systems, what they saw and what they were inspired by and would potentially adapt to their farming system. This podcast provides a snapshot of the event in four interview packages: 1)SwarmFarm's Andrew and Jocie Bates 2)Hannah Murphy (Radicle Seeds), Evan Shannon (agronomist at Farmacist), Simon Green (farmer) 3)Rhys Daniels (farmer, Theresa Downs), Sam Bradford (farmer, Arcturus Downs), Matt Anning (farm manager at Cedar Park, owned by Colorada Cotton), Don Sampson (farmer) 4)GRDC Weeds Manager, Jason Emms Thank you so much to everyone who made Emerald WeedSmart Week such a great success. If you liked what you heard, this year we have two WeedSmart Week events and there's still time to attend our Horsham event which is kicking off on Tuesday, August 27. Get your tickets here: https://weedsmart.org.au/weedsmart-week-horsham/

 Ray Harrington reckons farmers are calling the shots + paired row sowing with Jack Desbiolles | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 00:48:03

Australian farming treasure Ray Harrington joins us on the podcast to share his success with getting on top of weeds in his farming system. He reckons that instead of the weeds calling the shots, he's calling the shots! WeedSmart Week in Horsham is at the end of this month too. We catch up with a local farmer, Sam Eagle, to find out about his innovative approach to stock containment in his mixed farming system. He's going to be presenting at the event and we'll also be visiting his property. Furthermore, we catch up with Dr Jack Desbiolles, who is a senior agricultural research engineer at the University of South Australia. He's recently been featured on our Bulletin Board talking about his work in paired row sowing. He's undertaken extensive trials investigating the benefits of increasing the space between seeds in the seedbed. Paired-row sowing is one of the ways to effectively achieve this and can deliver both increased yield and useful suppression of weeds. Jack gives an extensive overview of the benefits and how to adopt it. You can read the article here: https://weedsmart.org.au/paired-rows-give-entry-level-crop-competition/, but first... Take a listen!

 Clever Crop Stalker provides unique option for shielded spraying | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 00:31:23

Join your co-hosts Jessica Strauss and Peter Newman to learn the latest in precision ag and find out more about Emerald, the location of our first WeedSmart Week event for 2019. In this podcast, we chat with Southern Precision Director Grant Yates about shielded spraying and other innovative technology which helps with farming system efficiencies. Grant started the company as he found that the latest equipment and tools that could reduce input costs and improve efficiencies were not readily available to farmers. We also catch up with Graham Spackman about the Northern Region and some of the issues faced there. Graham is a Northern GRDC panel member and is a Director of Spackman Iker Ag Consulting. He’ll be speaking on the Forum Day at Emerald WeedSmart Week, which is now only 2 weeks away! You can get your tickets to the event here: https://weedsmart.org.au/weedsmart-week-emerald/ If you're closer to Horsham, WeedSmart Week will be happening there on August 27. Get your tickets here: https://weedsmart.org.au/weedsmart-week-horsham/ We also have an excellent webinar coming up on the state of play of glyphosate. You can learn more and register here: https://register.gotowebinar.com/register/2530858464317343234

 Drone to tractor fallow weed solution saving up to 95% on herbicide costs | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 00:28:37

Emerald WeedSmart Week is less than a month away, so Northern Extension Agronomist, Paul McIntosh, guest co-hosts with Jessica Strauss to highlight some of the excellent speakers who will be presenting over the 3-day event. In this podcast, we hear from InFarm Managing Director Jerome Leray who will be presenting at WeedSmart Week. InFarm is an Agricultural Intelligence company based in Goondiwindi. The company has been recognised by Microsoft for becoming the first commercial company to receive the AI for Earth grant in Australia. The company has developed a drone to tractor fallow weed solution. It can save farmers up to 95% on herbicide and integrates with standard variable rate sprayers. It provides a solution to fallow weed spot spraying using the equipment farmers already have. We also speak with local CQ farmers, Kurt Mayne and Scott Becker about their farming systems and how WeedSmart's Big 6 principles have shaped some of the practical changes they've made, including some big purchases, like the WEEDit. You can get your tickets for Emerald WeedSmart Week here: https://weedsmart.org.au/weedsmart-week-emerald/ Take a listen!

 Farming with the premise of reducing reliance on chemicals | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 00:26:35

This week on the WeedSmart podcast, Jessica Strauss interviews co-host Peter Newman on why he's telling farmers they might not need a knockdown. We also chat with farmer Ian Taylor, who will be presenting at WeedSmart Week in Horsham about his innovative farming system and how his family is farming with the premise of reducing their reliance on chemicals. “Farmers are all in a war against weeds. We are winning, but you’re never going to win because the war will always continue. However, with an open mind, we’ll win the battle, but not the war,” Ian Taylor. Ian aims to keep his farming system going well beyond 100 years and he shares how they plan to do that. Finally, we chat with Central Queensland Grower Solutions Group Extension Officer, Hayley Eames about why it's so important WeedSmart Week comes to Horsham.

 The cost of a bad herbicide mix and innovative farmer Tim Rethus talks about his farming system | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 00:38:53

Herbicide mixes are not all one of the same. The efficacy of a mix can be affected significantly by the adjuvant its mixed with. On this podcast we chat with Research Agronomist with Jubilee Consulting, Andrew Somervaille. He explains herbicide mixes in more detail, with a particular emphasis on glyphosate. South Australian Independent Consultant, Craig Davis also talks about herbicide mixes and shares what advice he gives his clients in this regard. We also talk to Tim Rethus. He's an innovative farmer who will be presenting at the upcoming WeedSmart Week in Horsham. He farms with his brother Luke, father Geoff and long-time worker Glenn. His farm, near Horsham in the Wimmera is a 100% dryland winter cropping enterprise, receiving 425mm annual rainfall with around 3/4 of that rain falling during the growing season. In this interview, we get a snapshot of the farming system Tim and his family has adopted on their farm, as well as some guidance on how to make innovate decisions for your farming enterprise. Take a listen!

 Addressing roadside weeds and previews to WeedSmart Week in Emerald and Horsham | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 00:37:10

We're excited to officially launch the ticket sales for not one, but two WeedSmart Week events in 2019 in this podcast. Our extension agronomists join us this week to provide overviews of our events in both Emerald and Horsham in August. An event which is just around the corner though is the Australian Local Government Association Conference where one of the topics will be roadside weeds. This is taking place from June 16-19. Andrew Storrie 'Agronomo' joins us on the podcast to explain how roadside weeds can directly impact farmers and provides some options for effectively controlling them. Take a listen!

 How to address soil compaction | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 00:31:32

Soil compaction is an issue farmers face in regions across the country, however, there are some unique differences between management approaches in the Western/Southern regions, compared to the Northern region. In this podcast, we chat with Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development WA Agricultural Development Officer, Bindi Isbister, who is based in Geraldton, WA, to get a Western/Southern perspective. Agronomy professional & crop nutrition specialist, Bede O’Mara, gives us the Northern perspective. He works at Incitec Pivot Fertilisers in Toowoomba. Soil compaction leads to aeration issues and reduced water infiltration rates. This impacts negatively on a crop as its roots have less access to water and nitrogen. Compacted areas reduce water movement and decrease plant growth, leading to a less competitive crop and potentially more weeds. Take a listen to the podcast to learn how to prevent soil compaction and how to deal with it if you do have compacted soils.

 Weather forecast accuracy and crop competition trial results | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 00:40:32

This week on the podcast, we look into how to utilise weather forecasts and get the latest information on crop competition trials conducted by YP AG. Agriculture Victoria Seasonal Risk Agronomist Dale Grey provides an excellent overview of what weather forecasts to take seriously and those which you should probably take with a grain of salt. Dale has a real knack for simplifying this complicated topic, so if you want to get a good overview of the weather, he's your man! Dale refers to no breaking rains yet in the interview but since the interview, there have been some breaking rains across parts of southeast Australia. You can check out the latest map for May rain thus far here: http://www.bom.gov.au/web03/ncc/www/awap/rainfall/totals/cmonth/colour/latest.hres.gif. Also on related climate topics, the 'Climatedogs' animations (key climate drivers)were updated for a national audience recently and you can check them out here: http://www.climatekelpie.com.au/index.php/climatedogs/. And if you'd like to keep up-to-date with all of Dale's weather forecasting, you can simply hit a button to subscribe to The Break here: http://agriculture.vic.gov.au/agriculture/weather-and-climate/newsletters. We're also excited to have Agriservices Agronomist Chris Davey on this podcast talking about crop competition at seeding time. Chris is based in Kadina, South Australia and he recently wrote a great article in YP AG’s agronomy newsletter, where he said ‘weed seed reduction starts at seeding’. There are multiple benefits of crop competition, including increasing crop yield in weedy situations, reducing weed seed set, and improving the efficacy of Harvest Weed Seed Control. Chris has kindly given us access to his article if you'd like to refer back to it after the interview on the results from YP AG's recent trials and some tips on crop competition. You can download it here: https://weedsmart.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/20190507-WeedSmart-AHRI.pdf

 Chaff dump management and 'strip and disc' systems | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 00:27:19

Did you know you can bale your chaff dumps? South Australian farmer Andrew Ridgway, who is based in Pine Hill, has baled his chaff dumps this year to provide additional feed for stock in his area. Andrew tweeted about this novel way of managing chaff dumps, so we followed up with him to find out more about the process. We also caught up with WA farmer Rod Messina about how he's managing his dumps this year. Rod also talks to us about his recent trip over east where he was introduced to strip and disc farming systems. He talks about how some elements of the system could potentially be applied in WA farming systems.

 Vertical iHSD test results + the WEEDit | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 00:22:59

Technology in agriculture is rapidly evolving and being adopted by farmers in Australia. In this podcast, we catch up with the University of Sydney Associate Professor and Director of Weed Research Dr Michael Walsh to find out what his recent test results were on the vertical iHSD. He looked at the efficacy of the machine killing weed seeds and also looked at the effectiveness of the kill rate as the harvester increased its speed. We also caught up with Dalby Rural Supplies Precision Ag Specialist Jeremy Jones to find out more about the WEEDit and how it's performing in the marketplace. He also shares with us what ag tech has got him excited! Join your co-hosts Jessica Strauss and Peter Newman to learn more!

 Our new Diversity Era course 'Pre-emergent Herbicides 101' is now live | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 00:31:03

Our new free course is here! In this podcast, you'll hear from your co-hosts Jessica Strauss and Peter Newman, who are joined by course presenters, Dr Chris Preston and Mark Congreve. WeedSmart Content Creator Cindy Benjamin also provides an update on what's new on the WeedSmart website. Pre-emergent Herbicides 101 will take you through the in’s and out’s of pre-emergent herbicides. The course is taught by Dr Chris Preston (Uni of Adelaide) and Mr Mark Congreve (ICAN)and the course covers why pre-emergent herbicides are an important tool in Australian cropping systems and how pre-emergents help you to manage herbicide resistance in crop weeds. (Especially in a world where 11 of the 17 modes of action have documented resistance.) If you're an agronomist and you'd like to deepen your understanding of how pre-emergent herbicides work (in both winter and summer cropping systems), this is the course for you! You can register for the course (for free!) here: http://www.diversityera.com/courses/pre-emergent-herbicides-101 Mark Congreve also chatted about workshops he's running on effective use of pre-ems. You can get all the details here: https://t.co/wZFqXZxh9v

 Farmers share their harvest experience with weed seed impact mills and GRDC Updates | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 00:32:10

In our last podcast we heard from weed seed impact mill company representatives, so this week we're hearing from farmers on the ground and finding out about how they faired over harvest with both the Seed Terminator and iHSD. Farmers Kim Slarke and Scott Walton both share their experiences. We also hear from WeedSmart Southern Extension Agronomist Greg Condon on what he has been presenting at GRDC Updates this year. He gives an overview of the benefits of crop competition and diverse rotations, as well as providing an overview of some of the hot topics at Updates this year. Join your co-hosts Jessica Strauss and Peter Newman and take a listen.

 How the Seed Terminator & iHSD fared over harvest & the benefits of lime application | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 00:43:35

We're so excited to be back for 2019! This is our first podcast for the year and we look at how both the Seed Terminator and iHSD fared over harvest. Seed Terminator research and development director Dr Nick Berry gives insights into how the Seed Terminator went and talks about new models which are now available. McIntosh and Son Katanning branch manager Devon Gilmour tells us about how the iHSD went and talks about the now commercially available vertical mechanical iHSD. We also hear from DPIRD's Research Officer Catherine Borger about the benefits of lime application on crop-weed competition. Your hosts are Jessica Strauss and Peter Newman.

 Crop selection and rotation tips and post-harvest spraying | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 00:38:55

On the last podcast for 2018, we spoke with Dr Haydn Kuchel, who is CEO & Head of Breeding at AGT Breeding. AGT Breeding develops new field crop varieties. Haydn talks to us about AGT-run crop competition trials and how they influenced their breeding programs. We also learn about crop varieties coming online in the future. Finally, we checked in with AHRI and WeedSmart extension agronomist, Greg Condon. He gives an overview of crop sequencing and rotation, as well as providing some tips on post-harvest spraying.

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