Landholders will soon be able to better control invasive woody weeds in pastoral and grazing land with the help of Method 240SL herbicide, featuring a new active ingredient to Australia.
New to the local market, Method is a Group 4 herbicide containing the active ingredient aminocyclopyrachlor (ACP) and is used to control broadleaf, woody and brush weeds, such as mesquite, prickly acacia and broom.
Segment business manager at Envu, Paul Crack says Method has relatively low use rates and is highly active on these invasive weeds, but also has a unique point of difference in terms of application options.
“Method is unique in the sense that it has a substantial root uptake, while a number of other actives are foliar uptake only and have limited root uptake,” Mr Crack said.
“It can be applied in a number of fashions, including foliar spraying with a backpack, in a cut stump situation on eucalypts, where you cut the tree or bush down and then paint it onto the exposed surface, and also drill and fill, where you drill small holes in the tree at a convenient height and inject product into that hole.”
Mr Crack said the various application methods will allow farmers to control multiple species of weeds with just one herbicide.
“ACP has got quite a broad use pattern and really suits a lot of those situations where there are some dense infestations of woody weeds, like gorse.
“Where it is often hard to get 100 per cent coverage, Method is going to allow for effective control on those sorts of tough species.”
Envu has been doing trials with Desert Channels Queensland in Central Queensland for a number of years now to evaluate the efficacy of Method on weeds of national significance.
Some of these trials took place over two sites near the outback town of Corfield, and the IVM Group’s principal scientist Sheldon Navie says the results show Method will be extremely useful for landholders in Australia in both cost effectiveness and efficacy.
“At one site, we are trialling foliar application of Method on mesquite and have been looking at the trees 15 months after they have been treated,” Mr Navie said.
“All of the trees that have been treated with Method at the label rate have died, whereas some of the trees we have treated with other products that are currently being used have started to recover and shoot again.”
Similar results were observed at a second trial site where Method was applied on prickly acacia. This is welcome news for property managers like Errol Entriken from “Sesbania”.
“I am excited by these results, because we do a lot of chemical applications here and most of the time it is only a stopgap and is probably only going to get 60 per cent kill, but Method on the other hand looks very promising,” Mr Entriken said.
As a soluble liquid (SL) formulation and water-based herbicide, Method is practically odourless and does not contain any strong solvents, which is a welcome contrast to other EC formulations currently on the market.
The herbicide also works on slightly different target sites to some existing chemistry, so can help combat resistance that may build up in some species.
Mr Crack says the feedback on Method so far has been extremely positive and the quick results that have been observed validates the efficacy of the herbicide on these invasive weeds.
“We are excited to be bringing this product to the country because it has been quite a long time since there have been any new active ingredients introduced into the woody and brush weed space, so this is a big win for agriculture and natural restoration in Australia,” Mr Crack said.
Commercial quantities of Method were scheduled to be available from the end of July, while the Envu rural team, which has recently expanded, will be out and about around Australia to help support industry as this product becomes accessible.
More information on Method 240SL herbicide is available on the Envu website.
