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Harrington Weed Seed Destructor on course for commercial launch


Australia
June 19, 2012

One of the most anticipated technologies in Australian agriculture – the Harrington Seed Destructor – has progressed to commercial production.

The Grains Research and Development Corporation (GRDC) has awarded the licensing of the innovative HSD technology to de Bruin Engineering of Mount Gambier, South Australia.


A prototype of the HSD was involved in trials and demonstrations to growers across Australia late last year.

Designed to destroy weed seeds in chaff during harvest and thereby reducing the potential for weed growth, the first HSD is expected to be commercially available in time for harvest this year.

The HSD is the brainchild of Western Australian grain grower and inventor Ray Harrington, and its development has been funded by the GRDC and assisted by the Australian Herbicide Resistance Initiative (AHRI) and the University of South Australia’s Agricultural Engineering department which collaborated on the design.

Towed behind a harvester like a chaff cart, the HSD has been designed around a cage mill crushing unit originally developed for use in the mining industry.

It has been subject to extensive multi-state trials and evaluations, demonstrations and modifications – a process that will continue for the remainder of this year.

GRDC Manager of Commercial Farm Technologies, Paul Meibusch, says the commercial launch of the HSD is a major advancement for the Australian grains industry in its battle against herbicide resistance in weeds.

“With herbicide resistance becoming an increasingly serious and expensive concern for Australian agriculture – technology such as the HSD is a significant step forward in developing a sustainable and integrated approach to weed management,” Mr Meibusch said.

“Development of the HSD has been a thorough and exhaustive process, so it is certainly an exciting phase we have moved into with the announcement of the licensing of the HSD technology to de Bruin Engineering.”

De Bruin Engineering spokesman John Millhouse said the company was “looking forward to being involved with the GRDC and the grains industry in the further development, production and commercialisation of the HSD”.

The first unit is now in the advanced planning stage, and de Bruin’s in-house engineers have already made a number of improvements based on feedback from growers and researchers who observed and inspected the HSD during trials conducted during last harvest.

Trials, demonstrations and evaluations over the past couple of years have been overseen by AHRI researcher Dr Michael Walsh, who is based at the University of WA. Dr Walsh is continuing to assess the efficacy of the unit in reducing weed emergence and he will also be involved in working with grain grower groups across Australia to train potential users of the HSD.

Dr Walsh’s research over the past five years has shown that during a grain crop harvest a significant proportion of the seed produced by weed populations (between 73-99% depending on the species) is collected by harvesters and then redistributed back across the field. By intercepting this seed and making it non-viable at this point, a considerable fraction of the following years weed population is controlled.

Annual ryegrass, wild radish and a number of other grass (wild oats, brome and barley grass) and dicot weeds (many species) are a major limitation to profitable cropping systems in Australia.

This fact was recognised by HSD inventor Ray Harrington when he switched from mixed farming to broadacre cropping some 17 years ago and realised herbicide resistance in annual ryegrass was a serious threat to crop production.

“I decided that if I could manage weed seed set at harvest I would have a chance to combat the weed problem and after looking at all the options and logistics, crushing the seed seemed to be the answer,” Mr Harrington said.

Adapting the cage mill technology used in the mining industry for initial experiments, the first seed destructor prototype was developed and tested on Mr Harrington’s farm in 2006. Since then, the unit has been progressively modified and a more extensive field testing program has been undertaken by AHRI and Mr Harrington with GRDC support.

Mr Harrington expressed his gratitude to the GRDC for its investment in development of the HSD, on behalf of growers and the Australian Government: “Without the GRDC’s partnership, this project would never have got off the ground.”
 



More news from: GRDC (Grains Research & Development Corporation)


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

Published: June 19, 2012

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