How important is horehound?

The Horehound Biocontrol Group is working with Manaaki Whenua Landcare Research to prove biocontrol agents are needed to help control this pest plant.

Anyone with horehound on their property is asked to take part in the following survey to help paint a picture of how big a problem the weed really is.The combined data will be used to support a case to the Environmental Protection Authority about the economic impacts of horehound and support the justification to release biocontrol agents to suppress this weed.

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* 1. Your name

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* 2. Region

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* 3. If desired, refine your location

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* 4. Farm Information: Will help us put properties of different size and capacity on a comparable scale

Information about the progression of horehound problem, control costs, control effectiveness.
We assume control is mainly in lucerne, not so much in pasture. Please tell us if are wrong!
Size of infestation
We are trying to understand how horehound is spreading.  

In your answers to questions 5 & 6 below, please select a rough date in the past for which you know the level of horehound infestation. We can then compare this to current levels.

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* 5. Year you first detected horehound on your property

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* 6. Size of horehound infestation at the time you first detected it

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* 7. Size of horehound infestation now

Control measures

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* 8. At what threshold X% cover by horehound do you apply control?

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* 9. How much do you spend on chemical control of horehound? Include product cost, labour, machinery, helicopter time etc.

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* 10. Effectiveness: Chemical control successfully removes X% of my horehound problem

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* 11. Which chemicals do you use?

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* 12. How much do you spend on other control methods? E.g., grubbing, burning, ploughing, other?

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* 13. Effectiveness: Other control successfully removes X% of my horehound problem

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* 14. If an infested area is left untreated, how long (years) does it take for horehound cover to double itself?

Effect on lucerne

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* 15. Chemical control kills X% of my lucerne in a treated area

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* 16. If it wasn’t for horehound, I would be replacing lucerne every X years

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* 17. But, in horehound-infested areas I have to replace lucerne every X years

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* 18. How much does it cost to replace lucerne? $X per ha

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* 19. Lucerne annual yield in horehound-infested areas is reduced by

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* 20. Horehound makes X% of Vegetable Matter in my wool

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* 21. Overall, vegetable matter accounts for $X per annum

Final remarks

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* 22. Horehound problem on my farm is

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* 23. Other comments?

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* 24. To allow us to to get clarification to some of your answers, please add your email address

Thank you for your time

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