Smash and destroy weapon to wage war against weeds
A weapon invented by a West Australian farmer to smash and destroy weed seeds is nearing commercial production. The Harrington Seed Destructor was trialled and demonstrated during last year’s harvest in South Australia, Victoria and New South Wales after extensive WA testing.
The destructor, based on mining technology, is towed behind a header at harvest. The header separates the chaff fraction containing weed seeds from the straw and fed into a cage mill. This pulverises any weed seeds in the chaff and returns it to the paddock. In studies using dyed seed, up to 95 per cent of ryegrass seed was destroyed.
Associate Professor Michael Walsh, Australian Herbicide Resistance Initiative, University of Western Australia
