Mr Coleman runs a 3,600-acre property with a mix of wheat, barley, faba beans, canola and vetch and utilises a wide range of herbicides and other methods to control weeds. “We predominately grow wheat, followed by barley and then beans,” he said. “We've started to introduce a bit of canola just to give us that double break where we can clean up a few grass weeds. It's working well.” “Barley really is the weak link in our program because you just don't have the options with pre-emergent herbicides. We really struggle being able to control those grass weeds in barley more than our wheat as it’s the second grass crop in the rotation.”
Two seasons ago Overwatch® Herbicide was introduced into the system and initially used to control weeds in the faba bean crop. “I'm just blown away with how clean they are,” Mr Coleman said. “You just come back to do your grass spray, and there's just nowhere near the weed numbers there. “You're putting less pressure on your post em grass herbicide. That's a huge benefit! I’ve really loved what I've been seeing in the beans.”
“I like to use Overwatch® Herbicide in the beans, because then we just rotate our chemicals through there and I've been finding that it's giving us that extra level of control,” he said. “I've been looking to position it into other crops across my rotation . Any time you can get a leg up on annual ryegrass, you should try to take the opportunity.” In 2023 Overwatch® Herbicide was also trialed in barley. “I was looking for something to fill that gap – to really help the program. Having that extra level of control through the rotation is really important for us.” “Overwatch® did a really good job so this year (2024) I tried it on some Compass barley, and once again, I was really happy with the results. It was some of the cleanest barley we've had.”
Mr Coleman said ryegrass is the most challenging weed they targeted each year although he was also concerned with wild oats and bifora. They are both on the Overwatch® Herbicide label. “You'll see the seedling ryegrass come up, and it will bleach and then it will die. Early in the season, you definitely can see it and there’s enough control that when you come back through in late winter there just isn’t the numbers.
“We're getting that control early, we can get our crop established and up and then the crop can do a lot of the rest. “I’m also finding the same with bifora. Overwatch® is very effective. We’re not noticing anything out in the paddock when we're using it.” He said it was important to have two cereal crops in the rotation as the area tended to suffer from dry springs and the grass crops were generally more profitable.
“I feel that a wheat, barley and then a legume rotation is best in our country, and we can go and do things like double breaks with canola when needed.” He said seeding depth was important when using Overwatch® Herbicide and he had planted dry and into moisture across the two seasons. “We're just trying to get our seed depth right. This year, I waited until we had a small rain, just so there weren’t too many clods. The year before, I did dry seed in barley with it, and I dry seeded with wheat this year as well with Overwatch®.”
“Having our seed depth right and then just slowing down to avoid any excessive soil throw worked really well for us.Typically, we seed at around 8.5 kilometres per hour, but I'll drop that back to seven and a half when I'm using Overwatch®. It’s about getting the seed placement right and doing the best job we can.”
