In Calingiri, Western Australia, cereal grower John Young pulls an enormous wild radish plant from his wheat paddock.
"This one isn't even the biggest we can get here", he says.
With a dry climate, no-till practices and wheat/lupin crop rotations, Western Australia's cereal growing regions are perfect breeding grounds for resistant super-weeds - and wild radish and annual ryegrass are some of the toughest, most pervasive and most expensive to control weeds in the world.
These species have evolved to resist multiple classes of herbicide and are even finding ways to evade mechanical and cultural control methods. A single wild radish plant can produce over 10,000 seeds, creating large and long-lived seedbanks in the soil which can cause growers like John serious problems if they do not stay constantly vigilant and active - which with a farm of 1500 hectares is a massive challenge.
"A new mode of action can't come soon enough. How long until yours comes to market?", he asks hopefully.
