“I’m most excited about, probably for the wrong reasons, lasers because they are awesome to use!  

“There's just so much energy! It just gets blasted into these weed plants in such a fantastic, intense, short period of time. It's quite satisfying to burn these weeds to a crisp with a big laser.” 

In our fifth episode of our series On the Horizon: Farm Tech Janine chats to Professor Michael Walsh from Charles Sturt University about alternative weed control options. The conversation covers mechanical controls, electronic laser controls, microwave lasers, gametocides, allelopathic chemicals, mircojet sprayers and intense blue light technology which includes the Weed Seed Destroyer.  

We discuss efficacy, availability, cost, energy and adaptability for broadacre use.  

This podcast is sponsored by GE Silos. Visit https://www.gesilos.com.au/ today 

About Prof. Michael Walsh 

Prof. Walsh’s research career commenced in 1999 with his role as a weed agronomist in AHRI (Australian Herbicide Resistance Initiative) where initially he explored herbicide resistance in wild radish (Raphanus raphanistrum) and techniques for managing herbicide resistant weeds. A focus of this research was the evaluation and development of harvest weed seed control systems. This work contributed to the now widespread understanding and use of these systems in Australian and global grain production. In 2016 Prof. Walsh moved to the University of Sydney where in the role of director weed research he led the northern grains regions Innovation in Crop Weed Control project. Research activities in this and additional projects (Machine learning for Weed Recognition, Site-specific weed control in ginger cropping systems) identified the opportunities of weed recognition technologies and site-specific weed control capability. This has resulted in more recent research efforts being focused on the development of novel non-chemical weed control techniques for in-crop use. 

As part of the Gulbali Institute at Charles Sturt University (CSU) Prof. Walsh is continuing to research and develop novel weed control technologies with a focus on progressing suitable approaches through to commercialization. These research activities are integrated within the broader cropping systems research activities at CSU as well as being connected nationally and internationally with similar efforts.

Helpful links: 

Global Neighbor – developers of the Weed Seed Destroyer (https://g-neighbor.com/) 

Azaneo – pulsed electrical weeding https://azaneo.au/ 

Electrical weeding - Zasso https://zasso.com; Rootwave https://rootwave.com/; Weed Zapper https://theweedzapper.oldschoolmanufacturing.com/ 

Carbon Robotics – autonomous laser weeding (https://carbonrobotics.com) 

The Row Shaver interrow mowing (https://www.rowshaver.com/) 

The Weed Chipper https://doi.org/10.1017/wet.2020.34 

Energy requirements of weed control technologies https://doi.org/10.1017/wet.2019.32 

We would like to thank our sponsors GE Silos for making this episode possible. Visit https://www.gesilos.com.au/ today 

To learn more about BCG visit www.bcg.org.au 

In the spirit of reconciliation, BCG acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea, and community. We pay our respect to their Elders past and present. 

Disclaimer: 

The Birchip Cropping Group Inc. (“BCG”) makes no warranties regarding merchantability, fitness for purpose or otherwise with respect to this podcast. Any person relying on this report does so entirely at their own risk. BCG and all persons associated with it exclude all liability (including liability for negligence) in relation to any opinion, advice or information contained in this podcast and any consequences arising from the use of such opinion, advice or information to the full extent of the law, including but not limited to consequences arising as a result of action or inaction taken by that person or any third parties in reliance on the report. Where liability cannot be lawfully extinguished, liability is limited to the re-supply of the report or payment of the cost of resupplying the report. You should seek independent professional, technical or legal (as required) advice before acting on any opinion, advice or information contained in this podcast.