The Harrington seed destructor is named after its developer – Western Australian grower Ray Harrington.
Towed behind a harvester like a chaff cart, the destructor has been designed around a cage mill crushing unit originally developed for use in the mining industry. This is designed to destroy weed seeds present in chaff during harvest.
The destructor has completed harvest trials and demonstrations for growers in South Australia, Victoria and NSW. Results of the trials will be known in March-April when the season-opening rains stimulate germination of weeds, particularly annual ryegrass.
Australian Herbicide Resistance Initiative (AHRI) researcher Michael Walsh says the trial sites will be revisited as soon as the break in the season occurs to assess how well the unit reduces annual ryegrass emergence.
"We are hoping for an early, widespread break so we can undertake the evaluations before growers apply herbicides," he says.
Walsh, working at the University of Western Australia, says the trials and demonstrations involved 15 sites over 16 days and across 4000km.
"We were happy with how the trials went. It was a huge success in terms of the number of grain growers who came out to see the HSD in action, and the feedback from growers was positive."
The trials were part of a new Rural Industries Research and Development Corp-funded look at harvest weed seed management systems. They showed the core principals of the machine's cage mill were sound; only some fine turning was required for it to enter commercial production, possibly this year.
The developers stress it is not a 'silver bullet' in weed management – more a 'string in the bow' of an integrated approach.
