"There is very solid proof that increasing the clay content in the topsoil, through mouldboard ploughing, spading or Plozza ploughing, improving pH and burying weed seed will have an enormous effect on farm profitability," Mr Newman said.

"Part of the overall benefit is ‘re-setting' the weed seed bank. Seed burial works best if the topsoil is fully inverted using a mouldboard plough and then left undisturbed indefinitely. It relies on the grower taking the opportunity to implement a robust integrated weed management program, such as the WeedSmart Big 6," he said

The AHRI agronomist said the research he and others have done over a period of more than a decade shows that for weed control, the mouldboard plough does the best job. Other claying options can be very e...