The FINANCIAL — The new age of information technology is catching up with the age-old problem of weeds in cropping systems.
Heralding a new era in the provision of information to Australian grain growers, an innovative smart-phone application is being launched today to assist southern cropping region growers in identifying weeds growing on their properties.
The Grains Research and Development Corporation’s Weeds: The Ute Guide application provides growers with a free-of-charge weeds identification service that can be accessed anywhere at any time.
The application is designed to be used in the paddock by growers to assist in identifying the most common annual, biennial and perennial weeds in southern Australia.
GRDC Regional Grower Services’ Manager of Delivery Platforms, Tom McCue, says the weed identification application represents a major advancement in communicating industry knowledge to growers. Speaking at the application’s launch, which took place during a National Integrated Weed Management Initiative Committee meeting in Adelaide, Mr McCue said the GRDC was planning to convert a number of its popular hard-copy Ute Guides into mobile phone applications.
Mr McCue said the application, available only in Australia and New Zealand, had been created in a farmer-friendly format to streamline the weeds identification process. While the application is designed for use in the southern and western grain-growing regions, a similar weeds identification product for northern grain growers is expected to be launched soon.
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