Agronomist working in Esperance, Western Australia. Views are my own

Esperance, Western Australia
Joined June 2011
Scotland through the drones camera is something else. What a spectacular part of the world 💕🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿
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Esperance turf has officially been laid. What an enormous achievement by Esperance Hockey Club after a huge amount of work and fundraising. Please support the raffle to help pay some bills 👏👏
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What my drone has seen lately. Canola canola and more canola. Esperance is a sea of yellow, we have been very fortunate with our weather this year💕
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Monica Field retweeted
Great to get growers over our Gibson knockdown trial site. Big challenges ahead with new paraquat rates and herbicide resistance but new chemistry and new approaches giving some good results. Thanks to @agromons, @lukeedwards1994 and @J0E_Fitzpatrick for making it happen 🔥 – at Esperance, Western Australia
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Close up to the one population that is resistant to solos Trif or Sakura but NOT RESISTANT to the tank mix of Sakura Trif
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Monica Field retweeted
APVMA outcome on paraquat: Paraquat is still registered for broadacre crops (and rice and peanuts), however the use is narrowed to aid crop / pasture or fallow establishment with up to 231 g paraquat active/ha, which is 0.92 L/ha of a 250 g/L product. Current registration for aiding cultivation is up to 1.6L/ha of a 250 g/L product for autumn sowing and up to 2.4 L/ha for winter, spring and early summer sowing. For optical spot spraying in fallows, rates up to 770 g active/ha are supported, but only where no more than 30% of the area is treated. Other retained uses include spray-topping selected pulses at 200 g active/ha, and firebreak/non-agricultural areas up to 1140 g active/ha. A 14 day harvest WHP now applies to the pulse spray topping use (chickpea, faba bean, field pea, lentil, lupin), replacing the 7 day WHP on some labels which is driven by the residues/trade (MRL 1 mg/kg) assessment. Broadscale use now requires closed mixing/loading, enclosed cab application and tighter PPE/re-entry controls. A 2-year phase-out from 22 June 2026 for ‘registered paraquat chemical products bearing previously approved labels’ applies. Therefore, supply of paraquat with the old label is permitted up to June 2028, however new production of paraquat will require the new label.
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Grdc challenging soils site at Cascade is showing some biomass improvements on the gravel and sand spread in 2025. Interesting trial. Last photos show soil changes. @SLR_Agriculture @SEAgroResearch_ @GRDCWest
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Building more info on our last years trial looking for alternative double knock options. Ready for if or when we are limited with paraquat. – at Esperance, Western Australia
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Friendly reminder to always use fresh Clethodim 👌🏻
Side-by-side 1 year old Clethodim360 vs 3 year old Clethodim360 applied to FOP resistant wild oats at 100ml/ha + oil.
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Love him or hate him he makes a very good point here. No one is immune to mental health struggles. Men speaking openly like this helps everyone.
"I just want to shout out the Dawson family, and Elijah Hollands last night ... hopefully the AFL community wraps their arms around them. "Speak to your mates, put your arm around your loved ones. You never know who might need it." - Bailey Smith
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We have experienced bad situations a few years back and label rates of the 25 baits can and have failed at high populations. Solid data from CSIRO about the 50 strength bait & fatal dose. Unsure why this has been so dismissed by the @APVMA.
Agricultural businesses in the northern Ag region of WA are under serious threat. In my experience, label rates of registered baits are not enough to control a population that has gone exponential. Recent inspections of baited paddocks show significant removal of planted seeds despite recent baiting after seeding - in fine weather. Growers will need to apply baits more than once, which is costly. The common sense approach would be to have registered mouse baiting products that have a rate range on the label, where higher rates can be used for higher pressure. Emergency permits required asap. @APVMA @GRDCWest @theGRDC
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Monica Field retweeted
Snail activity WA (9-14 Apr): Slight drop in #pointedsnail movement at #Gibson cam past few days but still very active. See them respond fast when RH (blue line) increased from 80->90%+! (10/4, left) 🐌⏩Cam now up at #Palmdale; moderate recent activity (9/4, right) @GRDCWest
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The Esperance zone has been very fortunate with the rain gods for march and early April. Lots of rotation changes, concerns about Nitrogen and diesel, but seeding is mostly underway 🌱🌱. It’s going to be a tricky year to manage, look after each other.
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Este vídeo me parece brutal. Todas las métricas importantes indican que vivimos en el mejor momento de la historia, a pesar de los profetas de la desgracia.
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Monica Field retweeted
First pics of #snail movement from the snail cam at Gibson WA for autumn 2026! Heaps of #conicalsnail movement here from 27/3-1/4 following rain 🌧️ in late March (vid from 29/3 below). Potentially a great time to #bait active snails; test at small scale first @GRDCWest🐌
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Losing 7 to 9 millions tonnes of grain production per tonne of nitrogen fertilizer missing.
China has restricted fertiliser exports, per Reuters
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Replying to @NSWFarmers
CropARM (armonline.com.au/wc) provides a guide as to what 'someone diminished' looks like. Wheat at Gunnedah Sowing nitrogen: 25kg N/ha vs 100 kg N/ha Predicted mean yield: 1.3 t/ha vs 3.7 t/ha Predicted gross margin: $148/ha vs $777/ha Somewhat diminished indeed...
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Monica Field retweeted
Fertiliser not turning up: can your supplier walk away? What to do if the supplier pulls force majeure on you. Read the more on the link: episode3.net/conversations/f…
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Another handy use for the snail cam. Is def some nice numbers around this year.
Growers often ask if SnailCam could map mouse burrows in paddocks. I ran some tests, and the results look promising. The system can detect burrow openings and map them across the paddock. This could enable variable-rate mouse baiting instead of blanket spreading.
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