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Gardening in Oz

Chilean Needle Grass - anyone with experience controlli

11 years ago

After reading a whole lot of info on the web, I can see that this weed is extremely difficult to eliminate from pasture once it gets established. Apparently, if the land is arable, one could decide to spray out the grass and sow crops over the land for a number of seasons, and deplete the seed bank that way. Probably the most effective approach, apparently. Sadly, most sources then go on to say that whilst this approach will *control* the weed it can never ever be *eliminated*...worse, many of these articles then suggest that the longer term the strategy will inevitably become one of "learning to live with the weed" - i.e. abandoning any notion of raising sheep, going cattle instead, and managing the cattle grazing so they will eat and get at least some nutrition from Chilean Needle Grass, and so on. Which makes me wonder why they even suggested trying to crop it out at all. :S
What I was hoping to see was whether anyone has any first hand experience with trying to get rid of this weed via cropping etc and whether it is true that it is a battle you simply cannot win, even with arable land? Or would it be possible to say do a few years' cropping, then establish good pasture cover, and you shouldn't have much issue with it after that?

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Comments (2)

shaxhome (Frog Rock, Australia 9b)
11 years ago
Yep, one of the nastiest invasive weeds in Oz. Closely related to the equally nasty Serrated Tussock, also a national catastrophe for farmers.

Do you have land with this on it? As you said, forget running sheep, and it's even a problem for cattle. Causes eye infections in stock and is actually quite poor nutritionally, as well as out-competing native or sown pastures.

I fought it for 6 years with similar methods to those you mention, but you will never eradicate it, only achieve some level of control at best.

I finally sold up and moved. Too much work for too little benefit.

if you have a local Pastures Protection Board or Council Ag Dept, get them out to advise you, but unless methods have changed in the past 10 years, they'll tell you the same.

Sorry to bear the bad news!
lil
Original Author
11 years ago
Thanks Shaxome. I'm looking at buying a few hundred acres of arable land and I know that the land has some Chilean Needle grass in and around it.
I had hoped that as long as you can spray and crop it (arable land) you should be able to deplete the seed bank, establish a good cover of perennial pastures, and this should prevent it from coming back (as long as you keep said pasture in good condition through grazing management etc).

It sounds like in reality even with such good cover, the stuff will still get in there, and eventually spread. I definitely don't want to sign up for a battle I cannot win.
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