WEEDpak, the Integrated Weed Management Guide for the Australian cotton industry was launched in 2002 in response to a rapidly changing weed management climate in the industry with the introduction of transgenic, Roundup Ready Cotton, and as a vehicle to facilitate the delivery of integrated weed management information to the cotton industry.

The WEEDpak internet site has been one of the most heavily used of the Cotton CRC web sites. WEEDpak is also available in hardcopy and via the COTTONpaks CD. It has been an important pivot point for encouraging the Australian cotton industry to continue to embrace an integrated approach to weed management.

The biggest threat to WEEDpak is that it becomes ‘old’ and out-of-date. Regular updates are important not only for providing new information, but also for encouraging growers to continually re-visit the information already available in WEEDpak.

Outcomes: The primary focus of this project has been the support and promotion of WEEDpak through focussed research and extension with the support of the Cotton TRC. The project has been highly successful in achieving these aims, greatly increasing the value of WEEDpak to the cotton industry, and maintaining this document as a regularly used resource.

Research focussed on monitoring weed problems in commercial cotton fields, developing management packages for problem weeds and developing herbicide damage information to assist cotton growers. The outcomes of this research have been delivered to the cotton industry primarily through WEEDpak, with promotion through a range of other mechanisms.

WEEDpak has been expanded in four areas.

1. Through additions and upgrades to the weed identification module, with the addition of 53 new weed sets and 73 weed information pages, as well as new indexes and upgrades to all the original material.

2. Through revision and expansion of the problem weed management module, with the addition of management guides for bellvine, mint weed, lippia and caustic weed, as well as updating the cowvine management guide.

3. Through revision and expansion of the rotation crop module, with the addition of management guides for lucerne strips and vetch crops, as well as updating the pigeon pea management guide.

4. With the inclusion of a totally new module, the Herbicide Damage Guide. This guide contains 24 sets of detailed herbicide damage information for drift rates of glyphosate, 2,4-D amine and a glyphosate/2,4-D amine combination. This information details the impact of known rates of herbicide on cotton exposed at different growth stages. Such information as the impact on node production, inter-node length, leaf number, leaf area, squaring and boll production and retention throughout the season are given.

A second section, the herbicide damage images, shows examples of how the symptoms of damage develop over time.

This new material is available in hardcopy, via the internet and on the COTTONpaks CD. The emphasis on the internet and CD methods of presentation has ensured that the latest version of WEEDpak is freely available to all.

The recent inclusion of the Herbicide Damage Guide is a major step forward for WEEDpak, adding a totally new area to the coverage of this document. Expansion of this information over the new few years will not only provide valuable information regarding herbicide damage, but will also ensure that WEEDpak continues to be a most valuable and regularly accessed document.