Weeds and other pests are an eternal problem for farmers. Only last November, then Minister for Agriculture, Dugald Saunders announced the use of drones to detect and spray weeds across parts of the western plains, as a result of months of wet weather.
He also announced the release of 10,000 St John’s Wort beetles in the region to target the problem weed of the same name.
“We’ve deployed thousands of these beetles from Bathurst to Wellington, Coonabarabran and Gilgandra to combat outbreaks of that problem weed across the region,” Mr Saunders said.
Fast forward almost a year, and it’s now the dry weather contributing to the rising cost for producers to control weeds, along with other pests…