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November 12, 2007
A trans-Pacific meeting of minds
between scientists from Kansas
State University and the
New South Wales Department
of Primary Industries at Tamworth could deliver new
herbicide options to Australian sunflower growers.
While drought and price fluctuations are considered the main
reasons for a significant reduction in Australian sunflower
production in recent years, industry bodies accept that limited
weed control options are also a factor.
The prospect of improved weed control comes from Professor Phil
Stahlman, a dryland crop specialist from Kansas State University
who has specialised in integrated weed management and herbicide
development in broadacre crops.
 Professor
Stahlman (photo, left) is in Australia on a five month
sabbatical funded in part by the NSW Department of Primary
Industries (NSWDPI), the University of New England (UNE) and the
Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research
(ACIAR).
The professor has been to Australia before, speaking at the 15th
Triennial Australian Sunflower Association conference at
Gunnedah in 2006. He has good linkages with NSW DPI agronomists
Loretta Serafin (photo, right) and Stephanie Belfield who
visited him in the US.
While based at the NSW DPI's Tamworth Agricultural Institute,
Professor Stahlman is spending part of his time working on weed
management options in sunflowers with Ms Serafin and Ms
Belfield.
This component of his work in Australia is part of the Better
Oilseeds project, funded by the Grains Research and Development
Corporation (GRDC) and the Australian Oilseeds Federation (AOF).
Focusing on canola and soybeans as well as sunflowers, Better
Oilseeds aims to lift the productivity of Australian oilseed
crops to ensure critical mass and consistency of production and
to improve the quality of grain produced.
Key research areas are:
- identifying and providing
the best management practices that improve profitability and
quality of oilseed crops,
- providing grower support
through demonstration sites and communication activities,
and € ensuring industry feedback and ownership of the
project.
The Better Oilseeds component of
Professor Stahlman's work in Australia calls for an
investigation of herbicide options for sunflower production,
several of which are not available in Australia currently but
which may have
potential for registration here.
He says his research team in the US conducted research that was
instrumental in obtaining registration of sulfentrazone for use
in sunflower and they currently are working with an experimental
herbicide from a Japanese company which might have a role in
controlling weeds in Australian sunflower crops.
With a similar mode of action, and spectrum of weeds controlled,
to s-metolachlor, it is active at one tenth the use rate,
controls many of the same grasses as s-metolachlor and provides
slightly better control of broadleaf weeds.
Professor Stahlman says he is in Australia to learn as much as
to help Australian sunflower scientists and growers with
technologies developed for the crop in the US.
Another of the professor's special research interests in the US
is weed population shifts and the development of glyphosate
resistance.
"Glyphosate use in the US has increased considerably, from
primarily in-fallow application to additional, in-crop uses in
corn, soybean and cotton, and this is placing tremendous
pressure on weeds," Professor Stahlman said.
"As yet there are no weed species in Kansas farming systems that
are officially confirmed as having developed resistance to
glyphosate, but glyphosate-resistant broadleaf species are
present in neighboring states, so it is only a matter of time
before we have them too.
"Unfortunately glyphosate resistance developed in Australia
first and one of the reasons I am here is to learn how this
country has coped with that and to take those lessons back to
Kansas.
"We have similar patterns of glyphosate use, in some cases
almost exclusive use of the herbicide, so we expect similar
resistance problems are likely to develop in US dryland farming
systems."
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