A NEW website developed by Bayer has been designed to help minimise the problem of herbicide resistance.
The Mix It Up website was created as a central resource for growers and advisors containing a wide range of information on understanding herbicide groups and Integrated Weed Management (IWM), as well as collated herbicide resistance data from around the country, allowing growers to enter their details and drill down into localised data.
According to Bayer data, herbicide resistance costs Australian grain growers $146/ha annually, or $3.3 billion overall.
Craig White, leader of Integrated Weed Management for Bayer in Australia, says Mix It Up provides growers and advisors a place to not only find herbicide management solutions, but links to a wide range of information to manage weeds.
“It’s an issue that is continuing to grow, but it can be managed because there's a lot of great information. We’ve placed lot of effort in this,” Mr White says.
One feature likely to create interest is the resistance tracker, which could be used by advisors to help them identify districts that may need some herbicide resistance testing on particular weeds and different herbicide groups or modes of action.
“For example, a grower or advisor in Merredin, in the Western Australian wheatbelt, could enter the local postcode of 6415 into the resistance tracker, then select the status of wild radish to the phenoxy herbicides; 2,4-D, MCPA,” Mr White explained.
The data comes from two herbicide resistance testing facilities, Plant Science Consulting, run by Peter Boutsalis at the University of Adelaide Waite campus, and John Broster from Charles Sturt University.