THE "next big thing" in herbicide development is on track to becoming available to Australian grain growers next year.

Pre-emergent cereal herbicide Sakura is being trialled by Bayer CropScience in large-scale evaluations this year in readiness for commercial release next year.

Sakura is able to control herbicide-tolerant annual ryegrass and other weeds in wheat, barley and triticale crops.

BayerCropScience spokesman Alistair Crawford told the recent Grains Research and Development Corporation farm adviser update in Ballarat that Sakura was the first available option for killing barley grass in barley crops.

The herbicide has the novel active ingredient pyrasulfotole, discovered in 1999 by Japanese company Kumiai Chemical Co. Ltd.

BayerCropScience has entered into an agreement with Kumiai for distribution of the herbicide in Australia.

BayerCropScience has applied to register Sakura but is still awaiting approval.

Small plot trials have been carried out since 2006.

The chemical manufacturer said results from last year's trials had been "exceptionally positive".

In a paper presented to the GRDC update, Mr Crawford said Sakura should be incorporated by seeders fitted with knife points and press wheels or seeders with narrow points and trailing harrows.

"Sakura is a residual pre-emergent herbicide and in some situations, may remain active in the soil for an extended period," he said.

"It has very good residual control, several weeks or more, even under marginal soil moisture. Trials evaluating the replanting interval required for various crops following Sakura application have been conducted to determine recommended recropping intervals."

Mr Crawford said the good residual control also meant there was a reduced need for post-emergent herbicides to control certain grass weeds.

This freed up growers' time and resources, and added greater choice to weed control measures.

"The performance of Sakura in field trials against industry standards suggests it will play an important part in grass weed control in Australian cereal production," Mr Crawford said.