Lower Eyre Peninsula grower Jordan Wilksch’s seeding system is not only designed around maximising his crop potential – it is also a significant element of his weed control strategy.
Hosting more than 300 growers, advisers and researchers at the recent 2024 WeedSmart Week Machinery Expo at his Yeelanna property, he spoke about the importance of sowing technology in suppressing ryegrass.
A couple of years ago the Wilksch family invested in an Innovative Ag OptiSeed seeder bar, built by Peter Hills in WA. The first one of its kind in SA, the precision tyne, metric seeding rig married up with their controlled-traffic system to improve it for weed control.
With the new equipment, the Wilksches have decreased their row spacings from 307 millimetres to 250mm, creating more crop competition, which not only increases yield and profit potential but also works to suppress weeds.
“We’re getting better establishment and higher-yielding crops,” Jordan said at the expo. “Crops are covering over faster and competing more effectively with ryegrass.”
The precision system, which uses tynes rather than discs, has been critical in reducing weed pressure, he said. It precisely sows the crop on narrow spacings and enables a wider range of chemicals to be used with less risk.
A tyne seeder provides greater separation between the chemical and the seed, which allows you to use either a higher rate of chemical or a greater suite of chemicals more safely. Primary in our choice of seeder was being able to maintain all of the available chemicals at high rates.
The rig is also easy to adjust so seed can be planted accurately at various depths. “This allows us to sow precisely where we want to and out of the danger zone of chemical interaction.”
The ability to adjust sowing depth quickly and easily in the field also means that seed can be targeted to access stored moisture, which in turn leads to healthier crops that can compete more effectively with weeds, Jordan said.
Jordan is a fifth-generation grain grower, continuously cropping across 3350 hectares on soils ranging from heavy clays to sandy loams. Growing wheat, canola, lentils and faba beans this year, and without livestock in the system to ease weed pressure, he utilises a range of chemical and non-chemical strategies to control problem weeds. Along with ryegrass, these include brome grass, wild oats, marshmallow, sow thistle, vetch and wild radish.
In addition to his seeder, other hardware also plays an important role in his weed control strategy – particularly his weed seed impact mills fitted to the headers.
“If we were in hay or if we had a heavy livestock regime, I don’t think we would need a weed seed mill, but we believe it’s driving our seedbank down and it’s given us another important non-chemical tool,” he said.
To read more about Jordan’s weed management strategy and the WeedSmart Week event see groundcover story: Weeds event shopfronts the latest in control strategies