The annual economic loss of agricultural production caused by weeds in Australia has been estimated to exceed $3.3 billion. This loss now approximates the average annual net value of Australian farm production. In an attempt to address this problem, the Cooperative Research Centre for Weed Management Systems (CRCWMS) was established in 1995 under the federal government's cooperative research centre program. To achieve its goal of reducing the annual costs of weeds to Australia by at least 10% by the year 2000, the CRCWMS must demonstrate that its research will benefit both the farming sector and the overall community. This paper describes the development of an integrated economic system for evaluating these benefits and its application in evaluating the benefits of controlling a major weed of Australian grazing systems in the Murrumbidgee Irrigation Area.