Forty-four farmers and agribusiness professionals attended two interactive Disease Management in Cereals Workshops organised by Riverine Plains Inc.
The workshops were held in Mulwala on 5 August and featured Nick Poole, who is the Research Coordinator for the Foundation for Arable Research in New Zealand.
‘‘Riverine Plains Inc is very fortunate to be working with Nick Poole and our farmer members have benefitted greatly from his shared knowledge and expertise during his Australian visits” said Adam Inchbold, immediate past chair of the group and current committee member.
“Nick is highly sought after because he travels the world working on crop agronomy, in particular canopy management, and is a wealth of knowledge” said Adam. ‘This made the recent disease workshops a success because farmers were able to access the very latest thinking on disease and canopy management issues’ he said.
The successful workshops included sessions on cereal growth stages, how long it takes for the key leaves to emerge and how they are linked to nodal growth stages and the contribution of the key leaves to yield.
‘Understanding these growth stages is critical if you want to get the most out of your fertiliser or fungicide applications’ said Adam. ‘Missing an ideal application window is expensive, not only in terms of the dollars spent on an inefficient application, but also in terms of a potential yield penalty’ he said.
‘One of the most valuable parts of the day was learning how to devise foliar disease management strategies around crop development, taking into account crop type, variety and yield potential, and available fungicide products’ said Adam. ‘Nick also covered the best products, rates, timings and how cultivar resistance (in particular Adult Plant Resistance) influences strategy’ Adam said.
‘There was also detailed discussion around the foliar diseases including stripe and stem rust in wheat and leaf rust in barley’ he said.
Nick Poole has been working with Riverine Plains Inc over the past two years on the ‘Improved Water Use Efficiency in No-till Cropping and Stubble Retention Systems’ research project which is funded by the Grains Research and Development Corporation. Nick will return to Australia later in the season and will lead a Riverine Plains Paddock Walk at Coreen on 6 September.
