Farmer invents machinery that smashes ‘bejesus’ out of weed seeds

An “innovative” invention that destroys weed seeds during harvest is helping crop farmers make herbicide-resistant pest plants a problem of the past.

Weeds cost Australia’s crop farming industry around $3.3 billion each year in management costs and yield losses, according to the University of Adelaide’s Weed Management Research Group.

Determined to find a solution to herbicide-resistant weeds, Kangaroo Island farmer and engineer Nick Berry invented a mean, green, weed-destroying machine, aptly named the Seed Terminator.

In 2016, Dr Berry began manufacturing the farm technology with his uncle, Mark Ashenden.

“The herbicide resistance of weeds is a well-known fact, but there’s nothing resistant to Australian steel,” Mr Ashenden said.

“Our mechanical device sits at the back of the harvester and all the chaff and weed seeds go through a multi-stage hammer mill.”

The steel mill spins up to 3,000 revolutions per minute, leaving weed seeds crushed, ground and unviable.

“Basically, we smash the bejesus out of it,” he said.

Mr Ashenden said up to 80 per cent of weed seeds in a paddock will be picked up by a combine harvester.

Of that 80 per cent, the Seed Terminator has been independently tested to kill up to 99 per cent of annual ryegrass, and 100 per cent of wild radish, wild oats and brome grass.

Weeds threaten the country’s broadacre crop industry, which the Australian Bureau of Statistics gave a farm gate value of $28.9 billion for the 2022-23 financial year.

The University of Adelaide Weed Management Research Group’s Professor Christopher Preston said Dr Berry’s machinery has the added benefit of protecting soil.

“This has been quite innovative technology,” Dr Preston said.

“We’ve had other practices where farmers have burnt their weed seeds and straw, and it leaves the soil bare and you’ve got opportunities then for erosion over the summertime.”

Mr Ashenden said the team currently builds less than 200 machines annually, but aimed to export 1,000 each year by 2028.

“The jobs we’ve created to date is about 150 and we’ll add another 300 jobs over the next four years,” Mr Ashenden said.

The family business has received a $3.1 million grant from the federal government’s Industry Growth Program to export into European and North American markets.

“Manufacturing creates secure, well-paying jobs,” federal Industry and Science Minister, Ed Husic, said.

“That’s why we’re backing it, it’s important that Australia is a country that makes things.”

For Mr Ashenden, helping Australian farmers has been one of the most rewarding parts.

“They’re saving time and saving money [and] they’re leaving their land in a better place than what it was before,” he said.