Research work from Western Australia’s Department of Agriculture and Food (DAFWA) will be presented at the 15th Aannual Australian Weeds Conference in Adelaide this month.

The Conference, from 24-28th September, has attracted delegates from throughout Australia and overseas.  Its theme this year is ‘Managing Weeds in a Changing Climate’, taking in political, funding, social, economic and environmental climates.

DAFWA research officer, Alex Douglas said DAFWA researchers had submitted 15 papers to the conference on a wide range of research.

“The papers include including work on the effect of sowing methods and rates on wheat and ryegrass competition, radish/lupin competition, Clearfield™ wheat, and the biology and management of red dodder which is a new threat to the grains industry,” Ms Douglas said.

“Our researchers will also present a paper on a DAFWA trial, on the crop row orientation induced photo-sensory effect on the competitive interactions of crops and weeds,” Ms Douglas said.

The project is being funded by the Grains Research and Development Corporation (GRDC) and CRC Australian Weed Management, and is being supervised by Dr Abul Hashem.

“Our work to date on this, with crop rows running in an east-west direction, gives the crop a competitive advantage over weeds,” Dr Hashem said.

“It may be a useful tool in reducing our reliance on herbicides,” he said.

Researcher Shahab Pathan said the results of the study could have vital implications in guiding growers on whether they should sow wheat and barley in an east-west or north-south orientation.

“Light environments can be exploited to promote crop productivity and suppress weed growth through manipulating practices such as crop row orientations,” Dr Pathan said.

“Our trials show that sowing cereal crops in an east west orientation, especially in tramline systems, could be more productive than north-south under the conditions we have at DAFWA’s Merredin Research Station and at the Avondale Research Station,” Dr Pathan said.

Ms Douglas said the national convention was important as it provided a forum where researchers from Australia, New Zealand and other overseas countries could meet together to discuss future collaborations and new areas of research.