Western Australia
February 26, 2019
DPIRD senior research officer Jean Galloway (left), GRDC western panel chairman Darrin Lee, DPIRD principle research officer Dr Art Diggle and GRDC crop protection officer west Georgia Megirian at the launch of the SclerotiniaCM app at the 2019 GRDC Grains Research Updates.
A new app to assist canola growers across Australia to better manage the canola disease, Sclerotinia stem rot, was unveiled at the 2019 Grains Research and Development Corporation’s (GRDC) Grains Research Updates today.
The free SclerotiniaCM app was developed by a collaboration led by the Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development with co-investment from the GRDC and can be used by growers and consultants across Australia.
Department principal research officer Art Diggle said the app was designed to assist canola growers to make more informed decisions about fungicide applications to optimise yields and minimise costs.
Dr Diggle said the app was designed for use during the growing season to assist crucial treatment decisions using evidence-based information to estimate the likely returns from spraying for Sclerotinia for individual paddock scenarios.
“The app is simple to use and easy to navigate, requiring the user to input individual paddock data, as well as recent and expected weather conditions,” he said.
“It then uses a widely-accepted forecasting model to generate the predicted return from a fungicide treatment, in dollars per hectare, highlighting the probability of a negative or positive return.
“The user can select from several alternative views of the predicted results to suit themselves, including tables and graphs.”
The SclerotiniaCM app was tested by growers and consultants from across Western Australia’s agricultural region in 2018 and received good reviews and productive feedback.
“As a result of feedback, the app includes a feature that allows the user to email a paddock report to themselves for their records, to a client and even their mother,” Dr Diggle joked.
“Short videos about how to use the app and optimise its use have also been incorporated to assist users to get the most out of it.”
Sclerotinia stem rot is the most unpredictable disease threatening WA canola crops, which, in conducive conditions, can affect up to 20 per cent of crops across the grainbelt.
The app draws on several years of field trials and observations, as well as experimental data and expert knowledge from contributors from throughout the country.
Dr Diggle said the SclerotiniaCM app would give canola growers and consultants more confidence in decisions about whether to invest in spraying for this problematic disease.
“It is intended that the app be continually updated to reflect new experimental results as they become available,” he said.
“This semi-quantitative approach to calibration recognises the fact that Sclerotinia management decisions are highly influenced by seasonal conditions, which vary from year-to-year.”
GRDC Western Region Panel chairman Darrin Lee said managing Sclerotinia stem rot at the right time with the right control techniques would substantially reduce costs associated with this disease, and therefore increase farm income.
“The SclerotiniaCM app will help canola growers to make decisions on managing this disease in an economically feasible way,” he said.
Other contributors to the app’s development include the CSIRO, New South Wales Department of Primary Industries, the South Australian Research and Development Institute and Marcroft Grains Pathology in Victoria.
The app is a part of the department’s Crop Management series, which also includes the BlacklegCM app to help identify the most profitable management strategy for canola growers.
The SclerotiniaCM app, which is a tablet-based program, and the BlacklegCM app are available for free from the App Store and Google Play. For more details about the apps click here.
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