It is resistant to six forms of chemicals including eight documented cases of glyphosate resistance. This plant was originally seeded in pastures across the wheat belt. In New South Wales where Sutherland works, producers grow lupin and wheat rotations in a continuous cropping system. They have been encouraged to break the weed cycle by trying different rotations including seeding land to pasture. Adoption has been a slow process.
Farmers reject integrated weed management as long as they have some herbicides that work.
Integrated management involves extra costs, planning and time, but does not improve crop yields. Extension people including Sutherland advise farmers to rotate their chemicals to ensure they try herbicides with a new method of killing weeds. Another practice is to burn chaff windrows after harvest. An attachment on the combine dumps the chaff and seeds into a narrow trail. Farmers may spray the trail and then burn it.