Knowing the disease risk in-field is vital for timely crop management decisions. With in-field specific IoT stations, know the modeled conditions for spore release and spore infection.

In-field Disease Risk, the Yield and Quality thief

In-Field Disease Risk_cover

Agronomic issues

  • Know when to spray or not to spray based on actual infield conditions.
  • With in-field specific IoT stations, know the modeled conditions for spore release and spore infection.
  • Time fungicide applications based on growth stage and disease risk/pressure — stretch or shorten the spray window.
  • Preserve yields/quality based on well timed fungicide applications.
  • Pesticide efficiency varies depending on in-field weather conditions from 20 to 100 %.
  • Pesticide inefficiency can reduce quality by up to 80 % yield by up to 30 %.
Fusarium in Wheat
Fusarium in Wheat
Sclerotinia in Canola
Sclerotinia in Canola

IoT Solutions to manage In-Field Disease Risk

Use a nested approach of IoT devices to track weather conditions for your fields.

From infield to full stations with a variety of sensors: temperature, relative humidity, leaf wetness, precipitation, solar radiation, soil temperature and wind speed/direction.

In-Field-Sensors-for-Disease-Risk-Assessment_FieldClimate

Combine IoT devices, with one of 80 disease models for 45 crops.

nMETOS_FieldClimate

Example of in-field disease risk for Canola. Sclerotinia four modelled processes: apothecia development, sporulation and two infection processes.

Cost benefits

Having a field-by-field risk assessment of disease pressure allows us to target our crop management decisions.

  • Field disease pressure is often an unseen problem until its to late.
  • All disease models used by METOS® are based on pier reviewed research.
  • The biology for any disease does not change from region to region, what changes is the in-field weather and management techniques employed.
  • Weather stations or IoT devices not near or in-field are inaccurate for disease prediction.
  • In-field IoT devices and sensors allows for the very accurate prediction of diseases for zones in the field.

Voice of a grower

“Example: Sclerotinia stem rot robes my farm of yield, so much so, I have lost $55 acre on a 50 bushel crop for my 1,000 acres. I’ve had to change my management practices and use IoT solutions from Pessl to get a better handle on the environmental conditions for Sclerotinia disease risk so as to time fungicide applications. The IoT solutions cost my farm $6,000 a year, which translate into more than 8:1 return on investment.”

About the Author:
Guy Ash has worked as agro-meteorologist and earth observations science specialist for the past 30 years. Currently, he is the Global Training and Key Accounts Manager in Canada for Pessl Instruments, Austria. Pessl Instrument is an IoT company that manufactures hardware (loggers and sensors) and software solutions that are focused on the agricultural sector. We work in over 85 countries and have over 70,000 devices and 700,000 sensors deployed for a wide range of agriculture applications: disease management, irrigation, soil moisture, insect traps, crop cameras, weather stations, soil fertility, etc. One of his roles is to provide global training for an extensive list of IoT solutions for a wide variety of crops – rice, wheat, soybeans, oranges, corn, canola, forages, grapes, fruits and vegetables, etc.

Avatar-Guy

Guy Ash,
METOS® Global Training Manager
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