Chilean Needle Grass Field Day | Guyra, NSW

Location: 136 Bradley Street, GALA Centre, Guyra

Cost: Free

This field day will discuss the results from two years of local trials on control of Chilean needle grass.

Chilean Needle Grass (CNG) is an invasive perennial grass weed that lowers stocking rate and productivity, with seed contamination an additional issue for sheep.

CNG is generally unpalatable to livestock making it difficult for producers to utilise this grass. CNG is continuing to spread across the Northern Tablelands and now exists as near monocultures on some paddocks.

A group of producers in the Guyra and Ben Lomond region have completed a project to explore the benefits of control strategies. Supported by Meat & Livestock Australia as a Producer Demonstration Site, the producers investigated the outcomes from pasture topping, selective chemical control and slashing of CNG.

Pasture topping reduced the number of CNG seeding stems by an average of 92% and offers the prospect of a control action to slow the spread of CNG. In contrast, selective removal of CNG within established pastures by herbicide application has not yet had reliable success.

The low palatability of CNG is the primary restrictive factor for all livestock with some producer members attempting to improve the utilisation by slashing of CNG after seeding.

The full results will be discussed at this field day.