Developed through a partnership between the Foundation for Arable Research (FAR) and Kiwi ag-tech company HortPlus, the free-to-grower ‘Aphid Tool’ can be accessed via the Weather & Disease portal on the FAR website.
The tool helps identify periods that are most favorable to aphid reproduction, helping growers to make decisions about when monitoring should be undertaken to determine population levels and help guide management actions.
“Early winter is an aphid risk period for cereal crops, so this tool is well timed for New Zealand’s cereal crop growing farmers,” says FAR senior researcher for cereals Jo Drummond.
“This new tool provides valuable data that growers can use to make decisions about aphid control measures, such as when to spray and when the spray is not needed,” she says.
Read the complete article at: www.ruralnewsgroup.co.nz