Pre-emergent herbicide management for pulse crops in Southern NSW
Authors: Michael Moodie1, Ray Correll2
Research Team: Chris Davies1, Todd McDonald1, Mick Brady1
1Moodie Agronomy,2Rho Environmetrics Pty Ltd
Funded By: GRDC MSF00006
Project Title: Pre-emergent herbicide management for pulse crops in South Western NSW
Key Words: Pulses, chickpea, lentil, field pea, pre-emergent herbicide, herbicide damage
Key Messages
- A series of trials were established near Buronga in south west NSW in 2017 to investigate safety margins of registered pre-emergent herbicides and the effectiveness of agronomic strategies to minimise the risk of damage to chickpea, lentil and field pea crops.
- The application of metribuzin at high rates resulted in yield losses across all pulse crops and reduced profitability.
- The application of diuron, terbuthylazine and simazine were not found to cause significant damage or yield loss, however very dry weather in winter did not provide favorable conditions for herbicide damage and therefore trials such as this need to be repeated over several seasons to reach a conclusion on herbicide safety.
- There was a benefit to sowing at 6 cm rather than 3 cm giving an average 25% increase in grain yield across the three pulse crops.
- Applying herbicide IBS (incorporated by sowing) with a no-till system rather than applying PSPE (post sow pre-emergent) also improved crop safety.
