Farmers keen on weed control

Farmers were given some expert tips on how to control, and even take advantage of, invasive weeds during a two-day Weeds Roadshow held on the southern Cape York Peninsula in early May. 

Coordinated by Cape York NRM, the road show featured Wayne Vogler, a weeds and grasses expert from The Tropical Weeds Research Centre in Charters Towers, and was held at Broken Dam Station Lakeland on May 2, then Fairview station near the Laura region on May 3. 

“There was a lot of interest and the talks were well received,” Cape York NRM’s Regional Agriculture Landcare Facilitator (RALF) Katrina Shaw said. 

“We had 25 people at the Fairview meeting so that was a great result.”

The Weeds Roadshow is designed to provide property owners/managers and any other local parties with the latest information on how to manage and control the more invasive weeds and grasses of North Queensland. 

Those weeds targeted at the meeting included: - Grader Grass (which has a seed life of four years); Rats Tail (eight to ten years); sickle pod (12+ years); Calatrop (six months); Leucaena (ten years); Rubbervine (three years); Aleman grass (no viable seed, only nodes on the stem) and Lantana (five-eight years).

“By understanding seed life we can plan the management of these weeds and understand the importance of follow-up control,” Trina said. 

“Wayne has 25 years experience in weed management and gave a lot of helpful information to property owners on how to not only control the invasive grass species, but utilise them to some advantage.” 

She said two interesting examples were to heavily graze those areas prone to bigger grasses to help prevent hotter fires from occuring in the dry, and thus suppressing seed production and preventing further spread; and using some legumes, such as Wynn Cassia, to dominate or consume larger, more invasive, species.”

The Weeds Roadshow is part of the Healthy Farming Futures program (HFF), delivered by Cape York NRM through funding from the Australian Government’s National Landcare Program.