Aidan Curtis
A NEW project targeting weeds in the Limestone Coast is aiming to reduce the burden of eradicating pest plants for primary producers.
Limestone Coast Landscape Board (LCLB) and Primary Industries and Regions SA (PIRSA) have teamed up to take the fight to weeds running wild on local farmlands.
LCLB chair Penny Schulz said weeds cost primary producers millions each year, both in terms of eradication costs and lost production.
“We all know that weeds threaten the environment and biodiversity and productivity on farms,” Ms Schulz said.
“This work will focus on farm, but also look at even roadside weeds as they threaten farmland.”
“Being a farmer and a landholder myself, having a few extra tools in the toolbox or people to help with planning is always helpful.”
She said there will be a multi-faceted approach to taking out weeds, including the use of herbicides, manual removal and grazing livestock.
“If we can use more education, more action to control those really hard to kill weeds and invasive species in general in our landscape, it has both an economic and an environmental benefit,” she said.
“The timing of actions is really important [and] it’s generally a multi-year approach as well.”
Ms Schulz said one of the most “prolific” and hard to kill weeds in the region at the moment is African lovegrass, particularly in the upper Limestone Coast.
“The Board in the past has already invested some significant funds, over $50,000 just in roadside and with landholders to control African lovegrass,” she said.
“In many aspects, it up to the landholder to take responsibility to take a notified weed like that under control.
“But it is such a difficult weed that we’ve been helping a number of landholders with that.”
LCLB will be looking to leverage new funding and a newly-created weed control officer position through PIRSA to better target pest plants in 2023.
