FOR many Western Australian broadacre farmers still in the trenches against wild radish, the more options they have to throw at it the better - and a new herbicide that arrived this season has been particularly powerful.
Quadrant, from Adama, is a new co-formulation, triple mode of action herbicide now used in cereal crops to control or suppress up to 60 broadleaf weeds, including wild radish, capeweed, doublegee, fumitory, Indian hedge mustard and wireweed.
It contains four active ingredients, including diflufenican, picolinafen, bromoxynil and MCPA, offering Groups F, C and I chemistry and, hence, making it easier to use than tank mixtures.
Adama market development manager - WA, Bevan Addison, said combined with a novel surfactant system, Quadrant provided extremely robust, broadspectrum weed control in a single pass.
"In all our trials, this unique combination of active ingredients and surfactant has continually shown very robust control of a broad range of weeds, especially wild radish, which is the major problem in WA," Mr Addison said.
"Feedback from growers who applied the herbicide this year has been extremely positive, particularly focusing on the strong weed control.''
The combination of multiple active ingredients and modes of action with Quadrant provides fast knockdown of susceptible weeds, as well as residual control of wild radish for up to four weeks after application.
National independent trials have confirmed Quadrant's similar or superior effectiveness compared with industry standard herbicides and tank mixes, including control of wild radish with single, dual or multiple resistance profiles.
Wyalkatchem grower Nathan Garn applied Quadrant over 550 hectares of wheat-on-lupin country this year, in addition to his traditional application of a Jaguar and MCPA LVE herbicide mix.
"Everything went in dry this year and after it rained, I had to get across a lot of ground quickly," Mr Garn said.
"Timing wise, the weather was right, the conditions were right and the radish was at the right stage for optimum control.
"I'm quickly learning that you get one good go at radish early, otherwise it's hard to kill.
"If the crop is more than three leaf, it's almost impossible to kill - so timing is absolutely critical.''
Quadrant was applied at one litre a hectare, while Jaguar was applied at 1L/ha in a mix with MCPA LVE at 440 millilitres/ha.
"The Quadrant did a lot better than the 'Jag LVE'. It was nowhere near the job of the Quadrant,'' Mr Garn said.
"Quadrant took every self-sown lupin out and it is reasonably notorious radish country, but it did a pretty good job.
"Where the Quadrant hit the radish, it did a magnificent job.
"I didn't go back and spray anything with a late radish spray - I didn't patch out any areas.
"With the country we put it over, we normally have to.
"The most expensive spray is the one that doesn't work and if you don't have to come back with a mop-up spray it's a bonus.
"It did the job and gave us the residual.
"Quadrant is a better product than 'Jag LVE' at that timing and so I'd give it a go."
Mr Garn said for paddocks that he sprayed first with 'Jag LVE', he would probably go with Quadrant and then use 'Jag LVE' on paddocks that didn't have high radish pressure.
In bad areas he used Velocity early at two-leaf, just to make a start.
"As a continuous cropper, I was mainly targeting radish with the Quadrant four-way mix, as well as the self-sown lupins," Mr Garn said.
He said Quadrant would be a good fit in rotations as another option, particularly in cereal following pulse crops.
"We have been using 'Jag LVE' for a long time, so we need something else in the mix,'' Mr Garn said.
"I was very happy with Quadrant and will use it again next year," he said.
"I have 1150ha of lupin country and I'll probably put it over the whole lot.''
Dalwallinu grower Paul Sutherland said despite the more difficult weed control conditions early this season, he was pleased with the performance of Quadrant and the fact the family did not have to use tank mixtures proved a bonus.
"This season was tricky," Mr Sutherland said.
"With the late opening break, everything germinated at the same time and with no knockdown, in-crop spraying timing was very tricky and hectic.
"My sons are often on the boomsprayer and a simple in-can option made life easier rather than having to mix too much.
"We used Quadrant across both our wheat and barley this season, starting at 1L/ha and, over time, moving up to 1.2L/ha.
"We were very happy with the results we achieved this year.
"Quadrant seems like an effective and economical option.
"Farming in the drier areas means you have to get good results at a reasonable price, as you simply don't have the yield potentials to justify some of the more expensive options."
This was highlighted for Mr Sutherland again this year, with only 120-130 millimetres of rain falling on the family's property over the early part of the season, followed by only another 20-30mm through until recent rainfall events.
Meanwhile, he has also had another reason to smile after using Quadrant this year.
For every 100L purchased by growers this season, they entered Adama's competition to win a Yamaha Wolverine quad bike, and Mr Sutherland was the lucky winner.