A wheat crop ready for harvest, with wild oats in the middle of the crop. Photo: Chris Stacey, GRDC.
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Chris Stacey
A new report reveals grain growers are achieving productivity gains by investing in smarter, long-term weed management strategies, proving weeds can be beaten.
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A decade on from the last national estimate, new CSIRO research funded by the Grains Research and Development Corporation found weeds cost grain producers on average $4.3 billion ($203/ha) each year.
This is a seven per cent increase in costs for grain growers, however despite this increase in costs, growers are reaping the rewards of their investment.
Through proactive management and innovation, the impact of weeds on crop yield has fallen, from 2.8 million tonnes in 2016 to 1.2 million tonnes in 2025 — translating into higher production and income.
“Weed control remains one of the biggest annual costs for growers, but the investment is paying off,” CSIRO’s Rick Llewellyn said.
“By staying ahead of the weed seed bank, resistance and adopting smarter, more targeted practices, growers are protecting long-term profitability and enabling flexibility in their system.”
Australian growers lead the way with integrated weed management, combining pre-emergent herbicides, harvest weed seed control, crop rotation and new precision technologies such as camera-guided spraying.
Report co-author and CSIRO research scientist Rick Llewellyn.
One of the biggest gains comes from improved summer fallow weed control, which helps conserve valuable soil moisture and supports better crop establishment in drier seasons, an essential part of farming in a changing climate.
“Effective weed control is a critical part of climate adaptation,” Dr Llewellyn said.
“With increasingly variable rainfall and larger cropping programs, growers need to sow crops when conditions are right without delays for weed control.”
Dr Llewellyn said the study reaffirms continued investment in weed management research, not just for reducing losses, but for unlocking gains in productivity, climate resilience and sustainable land use.
“The only reason we’re not seeing widespread yield losses from weeds today is because of years of sustained research and grower innovation,” he said.
“This is a quiet success story, but it’s a battle where you can’t pause — the weed challenge keeps evolving and demanding new solutions.”
New weed threats continue to emerge at a local level, but nationally the most costly weeds remain familiar — ryegrass, brome grass, sow thistle, wild radish and wild oats — while the costliest fallow weeds in grain production at a national level are melons, heliotrope and fleabane.
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