The Australasian Weeds Conference (AWC) is one of the most significant events on the weed management calendar, bringing together land managers, researchers, government agencies, contractors and industry professionals from across Australia, New Zealand and beyond.
Held every two years, the conference provides an opportunity to share new research, emerging technologies and practical experiences from the field. While scientific advances remain an important part of the program, AWC has always maintained a strong focus on the day-to-day realities of weed management and the people undertaking the work.
This year's conference will be held in Christchurch, New Zealand, with TerraLab Director Harley Schinagl presenting on the opening day.
Looking at weed management from a different perspective
Modern weed management, if done properly, can generate an enormous amount of operational data. But surprisingly little of it has been examined at a broad industry level. Rather than focusing on individual projects or organisations, Harley's presentation takes a step back to explore what large-scale operational trends can tell us about how weed control is actually undertaken in practice.
Drawing on one of the world's largest collections of operational weed management information, the presentation examines broad patterns that emerge when looking across millions of recorded field activities over several years.
The result is a unique snapshot of how the industry operates, revealing trends that would be impossible to identify from individual projects alone.
What can we learn from millions of field observations?
Many of us have an intuition about what a typical day in weed management looks like, but large datasets allow those assumptions to be tested against real operational activity.
Among the topics explored are:
How many spray events are typically undertaken in a day.
How long individual spray events usually last.
The proportion of operational time spent actively spraying compared with searching, travelling and assessing sites.
Daily patterns showing when weed control activity is most commonly undertaken.
Movement patterns around treatment sites, highlighting how operators work through an area.
Differences between contractor and internal workforce operations.
How these trends vary across organisations and geographic regions.
One interesting example is spray trigger activity. The analysis found an average of around 220 trigger activations per operator per day, with some days exceeding 3,000 spray events. Looking beyond the number of trigger presses, the analysis also examines spray duration, operational rhythms throughout the day and the balance between treatment and other field activities.
These aren't simply interesting statistics. They help paint a picture of what weed management really looks like on the ground and provide evidence that can support future planning, workforce management, equipment design and digital workflows.
From data collection to operational insight
Technology is making it easier than ever to collect information in the field, but collecting data is only the beginning.
The real value comes from understanding the broader story hidden within that information.
As datasets continue to grow, opportunities are emerging to better understand operational efficiency, identify common work patterns and make more informed management decisions across the industry.
Presentations like this demonstrate how aggregated operational data can provide insights that benefit the sector as a whole, while respecting the privacy of individual organisations and field crews.
See you in Christchurch
If you're attending the Australasian Weeds Conference, we'd love to see you at Harley's presentation on Day 1 at 11:00 am in the Auditorium.
Whether your interest is weed management, GIS, environmental science or simply understanding how operational data can support better decision making, we hope the session offers a fresh perspective on the work many of us do every day.
We look forward to catching up with colleagues, meeting new faces and sharing some of the insights we've uncovered.