Department of Agriculture and Food Western Australia
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Leaf rust and stripe rust and their management in wheat
No full textLeaf rust (Puccinia triticina) and stripe rust (Puccinia striiformis f. sp. tritici) can be a significant threat to wheat crops in Western Australia in some seasons. Learn the symptoms and risk factors
Roly poly and its management
No full textRoly poly, also known as prickly saltwort or tumbleweed (Salsola australis), is a native species found throughout Australia. The dead plants can break off at ground level, forming the ‘tumbleweeds’ seen in movies.
Like most summer weeds, roly poly uses soil moisture and nutrients that would otherwise be available to the following crop. The time taken to clear uncontrolled plants can delay seeding.
Livestock will graze the young plants; however, they will not eat the mature plants and are injured by the prickly leaves
To rip on or off the old rip line: a paddock-scale study on deep ripping and topsoil inclusion in a dry season
No full textDeep ripping sands with topsoil inclusion to 45cm increased canola yield on the rip line compared to off the rip line by 24–66% in a decile 1 rainfall season (123mm growing season rainfall achieving 100% of estimated yield potential). Four years after ripping, the topsoil inclusion had created a pathway of better soil pH and lower bulk density for more roots down the rip line through the compacted, acidic and aluminium-toxic subsoil — increasing organic carbon levels to 40cm depth and root access to deeper moisture and nutrients. Plant and soil measurements suggest that subsequent deep ripping with topsoil inclusion in the ‘off row’ to alleviate compaction, could improve pH and nutrition/organic matter. Creating an inclusion zone every 30cm would give each crop row close proximity to a rip line of better fertility and access to moisture each season further increasing yield and the longevity of the ripping benefit
Spray-topping pastures
No full textSpray-topping or pasture topping is the application of a sub-lethal rate of herbicide when grasses are coming into head and flowering.
The aim is to reduce the production of viable seed and the seedling population in the following year. The grass is not killed by the herbicide application.
Spray-topping is normally carried out in preparation for the following season\u27s cropping program
Wild oat and its management in crops
No full textWild oats (Avena fatua and A. ludoviciana) represent a large cost to cropping; they are highly competitive and when left uncontrolled, can reduce wheat yields by up to 80%.
The greatest yield loss occurs when wild oat plants emerge at the same time as the crop
A spatio-temporal modelling approach to understand the effect of urban fruit fly outbreaks on peri-urban orchards
No full textUrban areas are well-known sources of fruit fly introduction and unmanaged populations pose a high risk of dispersal to surrounding agricultural areas. Although management of urban fruit fly populations is recognised as being important for area-wide control programmes, its relative importance is rarely quantified. Identifying possible sources of fruit fly populations is important to the success of area-wide programs, as well as to on-farm management. We developed a modelling approach to analyse the spatio-temporal connectivity of fruit fly across urban-agriculture boundaries. For a case study, we examine Mediterranean fruit fly, Ceratitis capitata, outbreaks in two fruit growing regions in south-west Western Australia. Connectivity between population sources was defined using a dispersal kernel and routinely collected surveillance data from traps located across urban and agricultural areas. Spatio-temporal Bayesian models were then developed to quantify the extent to which unmanaged urban populations contribute to commercial orchards across each region. Our model results from two fruit growing regions indicate that population connectivity is a strong predictor of urban and commercial orchard Mediterranean fruit fly density. Models demonstrate that unmanaged urban outbreaks can contribute to increased pest pressure in surrounding orchards up to 2 km, but the urban contribution quickly declines over this distance. We also demonstrated that our models provide a means of predicting changes in Mediterranean fruit fly density across a region. Regional scale inference from our models may be particularly useful for sites where surveillance trapping data is unavailable. With an increasing risk of fruit fly incursions from expanding urban areas into agricultural regions, it is important to understand the processes driving population connectivity to target pest management strategies. By modelling surveillance trapping data and population connectivity, we can quantify how unmanaged urban pest infestations can contribute to pest pressure in nearby commercial orchards. Such information can help pest managers quantify the risk posed by unmanaged urban infestations when designing and implementing area-wide management
Excavated tanks (farm dams)
No full textGuidelines and information for planning, legal requirements, design, construction and management of excavated tanks for water storage on farm.
Excavated tanks (farm dams) provide effective water storage wherever surface water run-off can be harvested for livestock, crop spraying, irrigation and domestic use on rural properties.
Excavated tanks for rainfall storage are common in the southern agricultural areas of WA.
Well-designed and constructed dams are farm assets, safe and require little maintenance.
Poor design and construction can lead to poor water harvesting and storage, excessive costs, downstream erosion and risks to property and people.
DPIRD recommends that excavated tanks should be part of an integrated farm water and salinity management program
Cane toad
No full textThis factsheet provides information about the identification, biology, impact, and management of the cane toad.
The cane toad (Rhinella marina), or giant toad, is native to central and South America. It has been introduced to many countries, including northern and eastern Australia. The cane toad is a declared pest under the Biosecurity and Agriculture Management Act 2007 (BAM Act) in Western Australia (WA). The Western Australian Organism List (WAOL), available on the website at dpird.wa.gov.au) contains information on the area(s) in which this pest is declared, and the control and keeping categories to which it has been assigned in WA
Measuring soil salinity
No full textTo make sound decisions on managing saline sites, you need to know the source of salt, how salinisation is occurring, the landscape context, and most importantly, the actual salt concentration of the soil.
The most common \u27measures\u27 of salt concentration are actually estimates based on electrical conductivity of a soil and water solution. Soil salt content can be measured in a laboratory by measuring the total dissolved solids in a sample. In the field, salt concentration can also be estimated using electromagnetic induction-based soil sensors
Adverse consequences of herbicide residues on legumes in dryland agriculture
No full textContext or problem
Selective herbicides control weeds in cereal cropsand break down over time, allowing safe planting of legumes in the following years. However due to climatic inconsistencies and changing farming practices, this is not always the case, and residues can inhibit formation of legume/rhizobia symbioses. Objective or research question
The objectives were to determine whether: i) exposure to triasulfuron, even at extremely low levels, reduces shoot and root growth and nodulation of five diverse and widely sown legume pasture cultivars in Australian farming systems; and ii) sowing legumes prior to recommended plant-back criteria being met for chlorsulfuron, triasulfuron herbicide, clopyralid, and pyroxasulfone herbicides results in unacceptable damage to subsequently sown pastureand crop legumes, causing reduced root and shoot growth, nodulation and N fixation. Methods
A series of glasshouse and field experiments explored herbicide residue impact on commonly used legumes in dryland farmingsystems. Results
A glasshouse study determined triasulfuron at concentration 0.000225 g a.i/ha, a (1/100,000) dilution of the label rate caused significant (p \u3c 0.001) decrease in nodule count, root length, root, shoot weight for Trifolium spumosum cv. Bartolo and T. subterraneum cv. Dalkeith, and at 0.225 g a.i/ha and 2.25 g a.i/ha for all five cultivars tested. A bioassay assessed T. subterraneum cv. Dalkeith health when grown in field soil-cores taken 4, 7 and 10 months after herbicide application (chlorsulfuron, triasulfuron, clopyralid and pyroxasulfone) to a wheat crop. For all three, herbicide residues significantly decreased (p \u3c 0.001) nodule number, shoot weight, root length and whole plant weight of T. subterraneum cv. Dalkeith compared to control. A field experiment assessed nodulation of five pasture and two crop legumes sown dry (dormant summer sowing), or following rainfall 10.5 months after initial herbicide application. Nodulation of all legume cultivars decreased in plots treated with clopyralid. Chlorsulfuron decreased nodulation for all cultivars except T. glanduliferum and T. subterraneum. Triasulfuron reduced nodulation for all cultivars except Ornithopus sativus and T. spumosum. Pyroxasulfone decreased nodulation of Biserrula pelecinus cv. Casbah and Lupinus angustifoliuscv. Mandalup. Conclusions
Herbicide residues from preceding cereal crops reduced fitness and symbiotically fixed N in subsequently sown pasture or crop legumes. Implications or significance
Our study highlighted label plant-back recommendations should be strictly adhered to, despite conflict with modern farming approaches of dry or early sowing) to combat climate change. This outcome may consequently lower profitability and increase the carbon footprint of farming systems