On sweeping plains in prime grazing country, both in the New England and elsewhere, an environmental threat lurks in the grass.<\/p>\n
Invasive weed African lovegrass is a \u201cbeast\u201d farmers region have been battling for more than a century, biosecurity co-ordinator Brett Jones says.<\/p>\n
\u201cLovegrass really takes over. Nothing competes with it,\u201d Mr Jones told AAP.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople spend their lives just trying to keep on top of this stuff \u2026 it overwhelms people.\u201d<\/p>\n
The weed, which was accidentally introduced in Australia before 1900, challenges farmers worldwide because it has a quick seeding cycle, flourishes in both wet and dry conditions and spreads rapidly.<\/p>\n
It can quickly invade and choke native pastures, provides limited nutrition for cattle and sheep and becomes a serious bushfire risk when it dries out.<\/p>\n
Part of the battle is understanding the scale of the weed\u2019s invasion because \u201clovegrass is a grass hiding in grass\u201d, Mr Jones said.<\/p>\n
So researchers have begun trialling the use of satellite imagery and artificial intelligence to monitor the spread of both lovegrass and another noxious weed, bitou bush.<\/p>\n
One algorithm detected African lovegrass with 89.8 per cent accuracy and 86.1 per cent for bitou bush, a yellow-flowering coastal weed, according to the study published in the science journal Weed Research.<\/p>\n
Charles Darwin University spatial analyst and researcher Glen Shennan said satellites provided a greater view of the weed invasion than drones, taking photographs from 700km away.<\/p>\n
The SkySat satellites took photos of the regions every six days and could provide a decade\u2019s worth of imagery to illustrate how the landscape had changed.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s an enormous amount of money that lovegrass costs Australia each year,\u201d Mr Shennan said.<\/p>\n
\u201cBy being able to direct control mitigation efforts and, in particular, the early intervention efforts, you could really hope to claw back a significant fraction of that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Managing all invasive plants costs Australia more than $4 billion a year, as lovegrass also develops resistance to herbicides.<\/p>\n
Mr Shennan said while the research was in its early days, the technology held promise.<\/p>\n
\u201cLovegrass is a particularly tenacious weed, so you have to manage your expectations a little bit,\u201d he said<\/p>\n
\u201cBut there\u2019s a lot of benefit that could be derived economically from this work.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr Jones said all research into managing lovegrass was welcome but there appeared to be no silver bullet in the pipeline.<\/p>\n
Lovegrass was best controlled on arable land where it can be successfully overrun by crops but management continued to hit farmers\u2019 hip pockets.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat we\u2019ve done for the last 50 years hasn\u2019t been working,\u201d Mr Jones said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s just getting out of control and taking over the place.\u201d<\/p>\n
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