Overseas technology is being used to get on top of weed control by Victorian horticulture producers.
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Agriculture Victoria recently held a webinar exploring precision weeder technologies for horticulture, supported by the Australian Processing Tomato Research Council and AusVeg-Vic.
Speakers included Nick Raleigh, from GO.FARM Investment's Sandmount Farms, which covers 6300 hectares in the Katunga region of the Goulburn Murray irrigation district, producing dry-land winter grains, almonds, mandarins and tomatoes.
About 320ha is dedicated to tomato production, which are open field grown using seedlings. They are supplied to Kagome under a multi-year supply agreement.
Mr Raleigh said weeds were a significant risk with tomato production, as there were very few effective chemical control options. Cultivation methods were typically very low tech, while chipping had a very high cost and highly variable results.
He said use of Metham Sodium was the industry standard with pre-planting but it was old chemistry that had workplace health and safety issues, as well as a high cost.
Early post-emergent treatment was Metribuzin (Mentor/Sencor) and Rimsulfuron (Titus), which targetted very small weeds but could not be direct applied over the tomatoes. It also had a very narrow application window.
So with these issues surrounding weed control, he looked overseas to the technology available on the global market.
He said the main goals were to reduce or remove the use and reliance on Metham Sodium, start moving towards an autonomous future, lessen reliance on the few chemical options the industry had left to control weeds and lessen chemical usage overall.
"A lot of non-chemical options are being driven out of the EU," he said.
Mr Raleigh turned to an Austrian product - the row-crop cultivator Einbock Chopstar with Row Guard.
He said there was a number of reasons for going with this particular machine, including dealer support through Vin Rowe Machinery.
Mr Raleigh said fine tilth worked better with the machine because when clods were present they hit plants and caused damage.
He said finger weeders were a critical inclusion to the machine, as they could get very close to seedlings, and provided very effective weed control with used in conjunction with Mentor and Titus.
The machine also features automatic camera steered side shift frame.
Tripod Farmers in Bacchus Marsh produces leafy vegetable with overhead irrigation and raised beds.
The business also uses Carbon Robotics' AI-guided LaserWeeders, which has high-resolution cameras to identify and target weeds.
Carbon Robotics' award-winning fleet of LaserWeeders recently hit a major milestone globally - eliminating more than 10 billion weeds across Australia, North America and Europe since its launch in 2022.
Growers can use the LaserWeeder on more than 100 different crops, including lettuce, leafy greens, onions, carrots, broccoli and herbs.
"It would take 100 people 10 years of continuous hand-weeding to eliminate 10 billion weeds," Carbon Robotics CEO and founder Paul Mikesell said.
"The LaserWeeder has achieved this milestone in just 24 months without using chemical herbicides or hand-pulling, enabling growers to allocate available labor to higher-value tasks that move the needle for their business."
Paula Thompson
Paula Thompson is ACM's National Machinery and Ag Tech writer. She has been an agricultural journalist for more than 20 years. Prior to her current role, she was a reporter with the Stock Journal, covering livestock markets and the grains industry.
Paula Thompson is ACM's National Machinery and Ag Tech writer. She has been an agricultural journalist for more than 20 years. Prior to her current role, she was a reporter with the Stock Journal, covering livestock markets and the grains industry.
