Wheat Pre-emergent Trial

Evaluation and comparison of various Annual ryegrass (ARG) pre-emergent herbicides.

Dumbleyung, WA, 2017

Summary

This trial was established on David Gray’s AgroAdvantage trial site near Dumbleyung, Western Australia. The purpose of the trial is to compare and evaluate a number of various annual ryegrass (ARG) pre-emergent herbicides and herbicides mixes.

With an unknown background at the trial site we decided to sow ARG using the trial seeder, running perpendicular to the direction of the trial plots. We placed the ARG as shallow as possible and sourced the seed from the Wagin seed cleaners. The trial was sprayed and sown on the 24th of May 2017 after 40mm of rainfall on the 19th of May. The site had no rain until the 23rd June 2017.

At each assessment date there was very little ARG and no way to quantify any differences between treatments. We did 10 times 0.25m2 quadrant counts and found 1-2 ARG per treatment, including the untreated plots. Therefore the results found in this trial are limited and we only have data on establishment - where there were slight albeit insignificant differences.

Methodology

Trial Layout

Experimental Design

Design:Commercial DemonstrationReplications:2Plot length:30mPlot Width:4m

Site, Crop and Application Details

*Note – ARG seed was collected from the Wagin seed cleaners and sown perpendicular to the treatments prior to establishment of the trial.*

Assessment Methods

Assessment Date:Assessment20/06/2017Establishment Plant Counts

Data Analysis

All data analysis in this report was conducted using Microsoft Excel. Simple means, analysis of variance and the student t-test were used to determine statistical significance using the least significant difference method with a 95% confidence interval.

Results

Establishment

The number of plants in 10x1m of row were counted per plot and averaged. With an LSD of 17 plants/m2 there are no treatments that are statistically different to the untreated. However the establishment of Boxer Gold and Arcade at 3L were significantly (statistically) better than Rebellion at 3L and Trifluralin at 3L.

Conclusion

With very little to no ARG making an appearance, even after trying to create background, we suspect that seasonal conditions played a big part in the non-result of this trial. We have heard numerous reports from various trials personnel that ARG backgrounds didn’t show face early on. In 2018 we plan to broadcast substantially more ARG seed prior to seeding to try and guarantee a result.

All treatment showed no short or long term adverse effects to the crop.