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With herbicide resistance in common weeds already impacting significantly on the Western Australia (WA) grain industry’s profitability, evidence has now been found of resistance issues in lesser-known and emerging weeds.
Resistance in ryegrass (Lolium rigidum) and wild radish (Raphanus raphanistrum) has been historically well documented, but a benchmark study by the Australian Herbicide Resistance Initiative (AHRI) for emerging weed species has identified the problem is far more widespread than originally thought.
Weeds such as brome grass (Bromus) and barley grass (Hordeum spp) were among the emerging weeds counted for both population frequency across the Wheatbelt and herbicide resistance.
Of the 466 paddocks sampled, 37 per cent contained the annual grass weed Bromus and 26 per cent contained Hordeum spp.
In the 91 identified populations of Bromus, 12 populations were resistant to acetolactate synthase-inhibiting sulfonylurea (Group B) herbicides and one population resistant to the cetyl-coenzyme A carboxylase-inhibiting (Group A) herbicides.
Forty-seven populations of Hordeum spp were collected during the study, with eight per cent resistant to the sulfonylurea herbicide sulfosulfuron (Group B), some with cross-resistance to the imidazolinone herbicides.
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AHRI senior research officer Mechelle Owen says the study will provide benchmark data for future research into these weed species across WA.
She says herbicide resistance in weeds is a major cost impost on WA’s agricultural industry. . .
The survey was undertaken in 2010 with the results published in April last year.
AHRI will conduct further surveys in coming years to determine if herbicide resistance in both Bromus and Hordeum spp is increasing.
Read full, original post: Emerging weeds show resilience to herbicide treatments
