Brome grass behaviour & management
Sam Kleemann1, Chris Preston1 and Gurjeet Gill1
University of Adelaide, School of Agriculture, Food & Wine1
Funding: UA00060, UA00149, UCS00020, and UQ00080
Key Words: brome grass, weed management
Key messages
- Brome grass has increased in prevalence across the South Australian and Victorian Mallee since adoption of no-till farming and with intensification of cropping.
- The ecology of brome grass has changed, making it more problematic to control in crops. Higher levels of seed dormancy are allowing brome to thwart early control tactics, resulting in greater emergence in-crop.
- Increased dormancy was associated with a requirement for cold stratification or chilling. Under field conditions this increased chilling requirement would not be met until late autumn or early winter.
- Knockdown herbicides are less effective in the management of highly dormant populations of brome. Therefore, brome grass management has become heavily reliant on Group A and B herbicides, especially the Clearfield™ technology, which is expected to increase the risk of herbicide resistance development.
- Because of high levels of seedbank persistence from one year to the next (~25%) multiyear control of brome grass is required to exhaust seedbanks to more manageable levels. Plan a three-year rotation.
Acknowledgements
We are grateful to GRDC for providing project funding (UA00060, UA00149, UCS00020, and UQ00080).