5 READ-TIME
Disease Monitoring Network Helps Farmers Better Identify, Map and Manage Disease Outbreaks
June 5, 2024
Scientists and industry leaders with the Prairie Crop Disease Management Network (the crop network) want Western Canadian farmers to check their pockets for a new tool in the fight against the diseases that drain farm profits.
Kelly Turkington, a plant pathologist with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, is the network’s project lead. He says it aims to replicate the success of a sister network focused on insect pests, the Prairie Pest Monitoring Network, which provides weekly reports on crop insects, including risk maps and control options. It is widely used by producers, crop analysts, provincial crop specialists, and industry.
Turkington is a big fan of what the pest folks built for farmers. He also knows the pest network is backed by decades of experience, while the crop network, which was established in 2018, is still proving its hands-on value to busy farmers. But hold on — there’s an app for that.
The Quick Disease Reporter Tool is an app that was developed specifically for the crop network and has been operational for a couple of years.
The app is easy to use, but has one catch, says Turkington. To optimize it for individual farmers, their neighbours need to use it, too.
FARMER INPUT BUILDS DISEASE MAPS
To use the reporter tool, all you need to do is download the Survey 123 app from ArcGIS, which builds interactive online maps. Next, scan a QR code for the reporter tool (it’s an app within an app).
The tool is designed to be used in the field, explains Turkington. Once on the app, farmers looking at suspected disease symptoms can identify the crop type, suggest a specific disease, and take at least one digital picture of what they’re looking at. This can all be done without Internet service.
When service is available, the app digitally tags the photo to the municipality, not the farmer’s field. The information is verified before a diagnosis and the municipality is added to an online map. Producers can submit the information anonymously or request a chat with a disease specialist.
MORE REPORTS = BETTER DATA
This is where the number of users comes into play for the greater good. If the crop network sees more reports of a particular disease in a municipality, it releases a warning through X (formerly known as Twitter). Information will also be shared on the crop network’s weekly blog, which is posted at prairiecropdisease.blogspot.com.
In addition to information about disease outbreaks in near real time, X users and blog followers will see research news right across the crop disease spectrum. Turkington expects the crop network will attract farmers and provincial crop specialists looking for quick and credible information.
The data is also likely to be useful for crop protection retailers since geographically relevant data is a potential game changer. For instance, a 20 per cent sclerotinia infection rate can cause 10 per cent canola yield loss, and rust can quickly turn a high-value wheat crop to silage. While effective fungicides are often available, timing is critical, says Turkington. If farmers have a reliable early warning system, they can take action before too much damage is done.
GETTING A HEADS UP WHEN YOU NEED IT MOST
“We hope the (crop) network will be a kind of go-to tool to inform farmers and agronomists so they can be aware of what they should be scouting in their fields or what they should be preparing for”,
WAYNE THOMPSON, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR WESTERN GRAINS RESEARCH FOUNDATION
In addition to sharing information about what’s already in prairie fields, the crop network works with Environment Canada to track the trajectory of wind parcels that pass over diseased fields. Signs of a cereal rust outbreak in southern Alberta, for example, can be traced back to winds that blew over the area a few weeks earlier. More importantly, data about wind parcels passing over diseased fields can also be traced forward to give Canadian growers a heads up.
“Rust spores are very adapted to long distance travel,” says Turkington. Winds across the Pacific Northwest impact southern Alberta, while winds from a Texas-Nevada corridor can carry crop diseases to Saskatchewan and Manitoba.
As part of its monitoring process, the crop network also tracks crop development across the Prairies. A spring wind passing over a disease outbreak in the U.S. will cause more damage to winter wheat than spring wheat. By early January 2024, the crop network was keeping an eye on a stripe rust outbreak in the eastern Pacific Northwest as this could threaten winter wheat crops in southern Alberta. (Check the crop network blog to get the latest updates.)
Weather patterns also factor into these rust warnings, since light rain washes rust spores from the air and deposits them in cereal crops, says Turkington. Network scientists and their colleagues with provincial ag offices will use this information to warn Canadian farmers about weather conditions that might help spark potential outbreaks.
“Sometimes these rust problems seem to come out of nowhere and that’s not the case,” says Turkington, adding that in most cases, the early warning signs of devastating crop losses were simply missed.
But if farmers know there’s an elevated rust risk, they can scout differently. “It’s like a heads up,” says Turkington. That information is likely to impact a spraying plan. It could even help suppliers make sure they’ve got the right product in place.
Western Grains Research Foundation was an early partner in the crop network and executive director, Wayne Thompson, is excited about the potential to offer farmers the kind of information they can already access about insect pests through the Prairie Pest Monitoring Network.
“We hope the (crop) network will be a kind of go-to tool to inform farmers and agronomists so they can be aware of what they should be scouting in their fields or what they should be preparing for.”
