Effects of atrazine treatment of sorghum on growth of a subsequent rice crop

Abstract

In an experiment at Yanco Agricultural Research Centre in the Murrumbidgee Irrigation Area, rice was grown on land that had been cropped with sorghum for the preceding 1, 2 or 3 years, and had received applications of atrazine at rates of 0, 2, 5 and 10 kg ha-1 on each sorghum crop. Rice yield was not adversely affected by previous herbicide applications, and growth was often more vigorous on plots receiving atrazine in previous years. The removal of volunteer plant growth by cultivation or non-residual herbicides during the winter fallow periods had no consistent effect on subsequent rice growth.