Haydon Wass was looking for a solution to tackle problem weeds whilst also reducing the chemical load on his cropping property ‘The Plains’, Nyngan NSW.

A Croplands demonstration by Dave Farmer at a spray application workshop led Haydon and his son-in-law Adam to enquire at Western Farm Machinery about the WEED-IT optical spot sprayers. They were immediately impressed with the technology and in January took delivery of a Croplands WEED-IT 7000L with 36 metre boom.

Haydon along with his brother Michael crop 4400 hectares and grow a combination of wheat, canola, barley, chickpeas and lupins. Windmill grass and buttongrass are amongst the worst weed offenders in summer and sometimes require up to five sprays, depending on summer rainfall. Haydon is conscious of the environmental impact of reducing the chemical load and managing herbicide resistance within his cropping operation.

Regardless of whether we are saving money, from an environmental point of view, the less chemical going out, the better.

Haydon Wass

Up to 30 per cent of the property is left fallow each year so strategic weed management also plays an important role in preserving
ground cover.

“We leave between 1000 and 1500 hectares fallow each year, sometimes for up to fifteen months. Maintaining ground cover reduces the risk of losing precious top soil”.

Haydon uses an equivalent application rate of 100 to 120 litres per hectare at average travel speeds of between 13 and 15km per hour, depending on the size and stress of the weeds in the paddock.

Croplands recommends travel speeds of no more than 20km per hour to achieve best kill rates, particularly in grassy weeds where the weed’s surface area may be minimal and the plant can be easily stressed. The beauty of Croplands WEED-IT is the ability to economically use a higher concentration of chemical, a different mode of action or both, which is a major factor in eliminating hard to kill weeds and therefore delaying the onset of herbicide resistance.

Since taking delivery of his WEED-IT Haydon has sprayed over 7000 hectares with chemical usage rates averaging only 20% of a traditional blanket spray. In subsequent passes usage has been as low as 5%. The water saving has been over 550,000 litres which represents a huge saving in time, pumping and transporting.

Across 820 hectares, we used 2000L of water using the WEEDit compared to 82,000L that would have been used in a blanket spray. The tank filling time for 82,000L at 300-500L per minute, plus your time to transport this amount of chemical would have been huge.

Haydon Wass

Haydon has also been impressed by the quality and reliability of the machine which arrived on farm flushed and ready to go. The WEED-IT has been “trouble-free” with “not even a blocked nozzle”.

“WEED-IT has ticked a hell of a lot of boxes for us”

WEED-IT has ticked a hell of a lot of boxes for us

Haydon Wass

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The Guest family uses a WEED-IT Quadro optical spot sprayer to limit chemical build up and deal with troublesome weeds on Thorburn, their farm north of Griffith, NSW.

The Guest family uses a WEED-IT Quadro optical spot sprayer to limit chemical build up and deal with troublesome weeds on Thorburn, their farm north of Griffith, NSW.

Rodney and Leonie Guest are the owners of the 2400-ha property, which mainly produces wheat, barley, and peas. Their daughter and son-in-law Tanaya and Sandy Nixon live on the farm. It is Sandy who operates the WEED-IT.

The soils on Thorburn are Mallee sandy loams with some sandy rises that have lower organic carbon levels. Rodney says they were finding residues of Roundup and 2,4-D building up in those low carbon areas, which limited following crops.

Legumes and canola are sensitive to spray and could not be planted on the sandier soils.

To reduce the amount of chemical they use, and therefore residue levels, is one reason why they decided to purchase the WEED-IT Quadro.

The Quadro is the latest version of the WEED-IT. It has new blue light sensors every metre along the boom and each sensor controls four nozzles. When it ‘sees’ the green of vegetation it directs spray solely at that weed.

The result has been a huge reduction in the amount of chemical they require.

Part of the farm rotation is to leave 400 ha fallow. This serves as a weed break and also conserves moisture for the next crop.

Sandy sprayed the fallow land, just after getting the Quadro in September.

I used just 25 litres of chemical spot-spraying, compared to 1000 litres if I had sprayed it all. There are huge savings to be made

Rodney Guest, “Thorburn”, NSW

He says cutting down the amount of spray the family uses is good for the soil, the environment, and the back pocket. In an increasingly regulated industry it’s all a positive, especially reducing the use of 2,4-D.

“It is a big advantage being able to use less chemical. We can afford to use more expensive chemicals that better target a troublesome weed.

“One of our problem weeds is feathertop Rhodes grass. Last summer to control it, we went out in utes most of the summer and chipped it out by hand.

“Now we are going to use the Quadro as we can afford a more expensive chemical, which has to go on at high rates.”

Sandy also hopes the Quadro will delay the development of herbicide-resistant weeds. At the moment they are just starting to see resistant ryegrass and they are hoping to get on top of it by spot spraying during the fallow rotation.

The Quadro has two tanks so it can blanket spray and spot spray at the same time. The main tank is 4000-litres and the hot tank for spot spraying is 1100-litres. Other models available include the WEED-IT 7000 with 7000 litre main tank and 1500 litre hot tank.

The two tanks can hold different chemicals and spray at different rates.

Sandy has yet to use this feature, but says in future he plans to spot spray weeds whilst blanket spraying pre-emergents.

“It gives us options. If a paddock is clean we can do the whole paddock at a low rate and if there is a scattering of weeds we can give them a bigger hit.”

When he is only spot spraying, Sandy uses the main tank for extra water. This means he does not have to make up as much spray at once.

He operates the WEED-IT at 15-20 kph. It has a 24m ground-gliding boom, so he can cover lots of ground in a day. Boom width on the larger WEED-IT 7000 is 36m.

The WEED-IT system of sensors can be added to any type of sprayer. The Guests purchased their trailed WEED-IT Quadro through their local Croplands dealer in Griffith.

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Controlling problem summer weeds is essential to Sheldon and Rebecca Dalton’s cropping business, so they had no hesitation adding a new Croplands WEED-IT 7000 spot sprayer to their fleet.

The WEED-IT 7000 compliments their two RoGator RG1300 sprayers, which are used to blanket spray paddocks left to fallow, while the WEED-IT is used to mop up any remaining weeds. All three sprayers are supplied by Croplands.

“We haven’t used the WEED-IT a lot yet, but it is already showing us it will be a great addition to get those hard to kill weeds, without having to spray the whole paddock. So it is economical,” Sheldon says.

“We farm in a lower rainfall area, and we leave a certain percentage of paddocks each year that we don’t crop, so we can build up our moisture as a risk management tool. It is important that we don’t let weeds take over and the Weed-It has a fairly well proven record.”

The Daltons farm around 18,000 hectares in western New South Wales on flat and slightly undulating country. They get an average yearly rainfall of about 350 mm.

Because of the lower rainfall, they fallow about 30 percent of their paddocks each year to allow subsoil moisture to build up. Rhodes grass is a particular problem over the summer months, Sheldon says.

“In the summer we are having trouble with Rhodes weed. It’s becoming a pest and an expensive weed to eradicate with blanket spraying.

“But with the WEED-IT, we can target each weed individually without having to respray the whole paddock.”

Instead of spraying 100 percent of the paddock we might only need to spray 5-30 percent. It makes the process more economical and we know we are achieving targeted eradication.

Sheldon Dalton, “Tanderra”, Hillston NSW

Croplands has extensively tested and calibrated WEED-IT 7000 sprayers for Australian conditions. Last year they added the new Quadro sensor to the spot sprayers.

Quadro sensors used blue LED lights, which are more sensitive to weeds than red LED lights. This enhances the sprayer’s accuracy and ability to get the job done.

With WEED-IT technology farmers and contractors can delay the onset of herbicide resistance, lower the weed seed bank and improve water retention, while making substantial chemical savings, which are all things the Daltons wanted to achieve.

They bought their WEED-IT from the Croplands dealership, Intersales in Griffith, NSW, which is about 90 km from their farm.

Sheldon and Rebecca farm with their sons Bellamy and Kaleb at ‘Tanderra’, near the town of Hillston.

The family owns and leases a total area of 35,000 ha, including 18,000 ha of farmland. The balance is in Mallee forest land, which is ideal for hunting wild pigs and deer.

Their home block of Tanderra includes 12,000 ha of farmland from 11 adjoining properties, while there are a couple of lease blocks located up to 30 km from Tanderra.

The Daltons’ farming operation is mainly arable. They grow wheat and barley for grain, and add peas and vetch legumes to the cropping programme to build up nitrogen in the soil. They also run a commercial herd of Angus cattle.

After the challenges of successive dry seasons in recent years, the Daltons are enjoying a good season with nearly 400 mm of rain so far this year, ahead of the average yearly rainfall of 350 mm.

“We got through alright last year. We had a couple of good rains at the end of the previous year and just before sowing, so we had a good crop. But we had a couple of dry years before that.”

Sheldon says the two RoGator RG1300s are the operation’s two main sprayers and are used for pre-sowing spraying, as well as blanket spraying of fallow paddocks. They are well complemented by the WEED-IT 7000.

He bought the first RG1300 about four or five years ago and added the second one last year.

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