Monitoring the health of your crops is a fundamental part of crop production and gives you the best chance of spotting a new pest or disease.
You, your workers or an agronomist should be checking paddocks on a regular basis. Early detection is important for controlling pests.
Pay particular attention to high risk areas where pests are most likely to enter and establish on your property such as along public roads, on periodically flooded land or gateways.
The green bridge should be treated or removed, because it can harbour pests during the non-growing season and as a reservoir for disease in the next growing season.
Crop monitoring or pest surveillance involves looking for pests or symptoms of pests and diseases, and then recording their presence (including population levels) or absence. A suitable pest surveillance record sheet is here.
In addition to assisting with farm management, crop monitoring is important for the biosecurity status of the grains industry.
Should an exotic pest make it into Australia, pest surveillance increases the chances that a new pest is detected early and can be contained and eradicated. A new pest in your crops might not only be new to your property but also new to the region or the country.
Exotic pests of grain crops are detailed in the Pests and Diseases section of the site. The list includes exotic pests of winter cereals, canola, pulses, summer grains and sunflower.
Some common pests of stored grain are also described, as well as two particularly important exotic pests, Karnal bunt and khapra beetle.
Export destinations can require ‘evidence of absence’ data for particular exotic pests, and some established pests, of grains. The Australian grains industry, in collaboration with governments, must prove through surveillance that certain pests have been looked for and found to be absent. Pest surveillance on-farm can assist in providing evidence of absence and keep trade markets open to Australian grains.
