Ryegrass management in a retained stubble system - farm demonstration

Ryegrass management is one of the key drivers of profitability in Lower Eyre Peninsula (LEP) cropping systems, and herbicides have recently been used as the main strategy for control. The intensification of cropping rotations and a decrease in livestock in farming systems has increased pressure on herbicides, resulting in the development of herbicide resistance. Other management strategies need to be assessed to manage ryegrass. The Australian Herbicide Resistance Initiative (ARHI) based at University of Western Australia developed the Ryegrass Integrated Management (RIM) model. This model enables growers and advisors to run various ryegrass management scenarios, with the model showing the cumulative effect on ryegrass numbers and profitability of the management strategies. This model can be accessed at ahri.uwa.edu.au/research/rim.The GRDC ‘Maintaining profitable farming systems with retained stubble - upper Eyre Peninsula’ project has a focus on barley grass (Upper EP) and ryegrass (LEP). The research on this project has been undertaken by SARDI Minnipa Agricultural Centre staff. As part of this research a LEP farm was selected to monitor in-paddock ryegrass populations and weed management strategies. This research aims to ground-truth the effect (predicted by the RIM model) that various ryegrass management strategies have on ryegrass populations on a LEP farm with high ryegrass numbers and extend this information to EP growers and advisors to assist them in improving ryegrass management decisions using the RIM model.