Crops

The Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development continues to support the growth and international competitiveness of all crop industries in Western Australia.

With a 2400 kilometre span from its tropical north to its temperate south, WA supports a broad range of cropping industries from rain-fed winter cereals through to irrigated horticultural crops.

In the 2012/13 year the WA cropping industries exported a total of $3.9 billion which comprised: $3.1 billion of cereals, $859 million of pulses, pastures and oilseeds, $142 million of horticultural crops. The major contributors to these exports were wheat ($2.7 billion), canola ($756 million), barley ($377 million), lupins ($42 million), carrots at $48 million, oats ($12 million), and strawberries at $5.5 million.

Articles

  • The term 'residual' applies to a number of herbicides that have a long lasting activity in the soil. These herbicides are often applied directly to the soil prior to planting crops, pre-emergent.

  • One-off soil inversion results in the complete burial of the water repellent topsoil in a layer typically at a depth of 15 to 35 cm, and brings to the surface a layer of wettable subsoil.

  • Windmill grass (Chloris truncata) is a native species and is the tenth most common summer weed species in the Western Australian wheatbelt.

  • Annual ryegrass (Lolium rigidum) is one of the most serious and costly weeds of annual winter cropping systems in southern Australia.

  • Brome grasses (Bromus spp.) are highly competitive weeds, most problematic in wheat crops.

  • The Weed Seed Wizard is a computer simulation tool that uses paddock management information to predict weed emergence and crop losses.

  • ‘Risk-aware’ growers can implement strategies to reduce and avoid unnecessary introduction and spread of weeds.

  • The most accurate way to estimate the weed population of a paddock is to count the number of plants in an area of known size at a number of locations.

  • In Western Australia, competition from 7-90 capeweed plants per square metre in a wheat crop can reduce crop yield by 28-44% and net return by 25-76%.

  • One method of weed control is to remove weed seeds in the fallow, stubble and pre-sowing phase.