Oral Australian Summer Grains Conference 2013

Residual chemistry for the management of feather top rhodes (177)

Rob Battaglia

Feather Top Rhodes (FTR) grass has become an increasingly prevalent problem in the Northern cropping region because of the difficulty in control of established plants in fallow situations and in-crop.  A key strategy to managing FTR is to reduce the establishment of populations through use of residual herbicides.  Some industry research has focused on the use of pre-emergent residuals such as Dual Gold (s-metalochlor) for management of Feather Top Rhodes either, in fallows or post sowing/ pre-emergent in crop.  Dual Gold is registered on a range of grass weed species in sorghum, maize and a number of other field crops. Syngenta has recently submitted a registration application which seeks the inclusion of FTR at current registered rates on label.  Dual Gold, at current label rates, provided effective reduction of FTR populations in-fallow in trials when tank mixed with Gramoxone in a double knock following a Glyphosate application.  Post sowing, pre-emergent applications of Dual Gold significantly reduced populations of FTR in sorghum up to 60 days after application.