Survey of current management practices of barley grass in low rainfall zone farming systems

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Barley grass is now one of the top 10 weeds of Australian cropping in terms of area infested, crop yield loss and revenue loss (Llewellyn et al. 2016). Barley grass has several biological traits that make it difficult for growers to manage it in the low rainfall zone, so it is not surprising that it is becoming more prevalent in field crops in SA and WA.
Through recent GRDC investment, the research project ‘Demonstrating and validating the implementation of integrated weed management strategies to control barley grass in the low rainfall zone farming systems’ (hereby referred to as GRDC Low Rainfall Barley Grass) has commenced. An initial grower survey of current practice and attitudes towards barley grass was undertaken in 2019 to be used as the baseline to assess changes in grower attitudes and any change in practices after the completion of the three-year project.