WEED CONTROL EFFORT

Press, Volume CV, Issue 30983, 12 February 1966, Page 9

WEED CONTROL EFFORT

'THE Lands and Survey Department is stepping up its attack on noxious weeds in particular sweet briar and broom, which are becoming a problem of increasing importance on the station. Much of the work has been experimental in nature. The most promising material used yet is said to be Tordon pellets or ganules but they are very expensive. They have been used at 601 b and 1001 b to the acre and at the latter rate the cost of materials would be up to about £35 an acre.

About two and a half tons of Tordon pellets have been spread by air over about seven miles of the Elliott block to open tracks for the cattle.

The station manager, Mr M. M. Chisholm, said that this had been done last year and it would be next spring before the effects would be known, but judging from hand treatment of bushes done earlier this application should be effective. Briar bushes around Molesworth homestead which have been treated with pellets look pretty dead.

The Elliott country, Mr Chisholm recalled, had been badly infested with rabbits earlier on and also with wild pigs, which had the reputation of being the worst offend-

ers in the spread of briar. In six weeks on this country a gang had shot about 2000 pigs. They had also been poisoned with phosphorus and tackled by cullers. A half-ton of the pellets are now being held for use on isolated bushes on country otherwise free from the weed. Thousands of gallons of water have been used to spread Tordon, TBA and 2,4,5,T. This had been costly and inconclusive, said Mr Chisholm. He estimated that there had been a 60 per cent kill with T.B.A. in liquid form.

Because of the cost and difficulty of using water for chemical sprays in this country, Mr Chisholm said he had urged the production of T.B.A. in granular or pellet form and this was now being evalued.

A lot of effort had been directed at determining a mininum effective rate for spraying from a fixed wing aircraft.

A four-wheel drive truck has had £7OO worth of equipment mounted on it for spraying. This includes a tank and a nine horsepower pump developing 6001 b pressure to the square inch and a Isft 6in boom. The equipment is controlled from the cab but a man usually also travels on the back to operate a 150 ft long hose to spot spray where necessary. A smaller spray plant has been built on a trailer for use from the station’s Bush Gully camp on the Clarence.