DARLING Downs farmers Andy and Allison Gilmore have tackled the hard-to-control weed, fleabane, head on this season by reverting to a strategic cultivation before they planted their summer crops.
While the Gilmores would have preferred to avoid tilling the rich black soils of their Missen Flat farm, West Lyn, fleabane's increasing resistance to herbicide has forced them to adopt alternative control measures.
"I have been trying to go to zero till but fleabane is becoming resistant to herbicide, so this year I cultivated practically all my summer ground to get fleabane under control," Mr Gilmore said.
"It has become a real problem.
"It is becoming more resistant to some of the knockdown herbicides we use.
"I reckon from here on half my summer crop will be zero tilled and the other half will be prepared ground, then we'll reverse the paddocks the following year, mainly to control fleabane.
"I don't think working the ground sometimes does any harm to this black soil country."
The Gilmores have sown sorghum, corn and an opportunity crop of soybeans on West Lyn this summer.
Their 112-hectare crop of Pacific Seeds Buster sorghum was sown on December 5 with a Norseman planter at 72,000 to 75,000 seeds/ha on 91cm rows.
"I prefer to sow in the first week of November but the season didn't allow that," Mr Gilmore said.
The crop had 80 units of anhydrous ammonia under it and an application of 36kg/ha of Starter Z.
At harvest in April/May the sorghum will be sold to local feedlots and local produce agents.
Mr Gilmore said he always included corn in the summer cropping rotation. This year he has planted 32ha.
"I don't grow a lot of corn but always have a little bit. It is always a saleable product that gives diversity.
"In this area it is usually easy to sell. If you have corn to sell in June/July, there is usually a good market for it."
In a one-off move, Mr Gilmore also planted 28ha of soybeans this season as an opportunity crop double cropped into standing barley stubble, largely to allow him to change country over from winter to summer crop.
"I don't grow them all the time. A lot of people use mungbeans but I just prefer growing soybeans.
"They are not better or worse - I just prefer growing them."
Handy storm rains in mid-December kicked along all the summer crops on West Lyn and set them on track for a promising harvest in April/May.
"I hope this year I can average somewhere around 2.3 tonnes an acre (5.75t/ha) for sorghum and corn, but there are a lot of variables to go between now and then."
Mr Gilmore has also been buoyed by a reasonable price outlook for summer crops.
"At the moment the prospects are good. If I had sorghum ready to sell in March next year - which I won't - they are talking $296/t on-farm.
"As late as the season was last year - we had to wait until Christmas Day for rain and we didn't start planting until January 1 - the later the season went, the dearer it got. It got up to $300/t.
"I averaged $285/t last season for my sorghum."
Neil Lyon
National machinery writer for Fairfax Agricultural Media.
National machinery writer for Fairfax Agricultural Media.
