Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 June 2017
Weeds reduce the livestock production from pastures and impose control costs on producers and governments. Economic assessments of pasture weed problems are required on and beyond the farm for planning private and public weed control. This requirement has several dimensions that can be used to demonstrate the economic effect of weeds and encourage weed control by the private and public sectors. This paper discusses the economic problems of pasture weeds and the procedures for multi-level economic assessments with a major pasture weed in Australia as an example, and demonstrates the important private and social economic benefits from controlling this weed.