Prairie Crop Disease Monitoring Network Quick Disease Reporter Tool (PCDMN QDRT)
Introduction
Each growing season
Prairie field crop producers are faced with multiple abiotic and biotic
issues. Of the biotic issues plant
diseases can have a critical impact on crop productivity and grain quality. For some issues prior knowledge of disease
history and impact can be used to modify cropping plans to minimize the impact
of these issues in future growing seasons.
These plans can include strategies such as extending the rotational
interval between host crops, choosing a more resistant variety, and using good
agronomics to promote overall plant health.
Unfortunately for
some plant disease issues, management decisions need to be made during the
growing season and these typically involve the decision to apply a
fungicide. For some issues such as
sclerotinia stem rot in canola and fusarium head blight in
small grain cereals, the decision to spray or not to spray comes too late if
symptoms in the crop are already apparent.
In contrast, for cereal leaf spots and rusts, and foliar pulse crop
diseases a producer or crop consultant can follow their development to gauge
risk and the need for an initial and subsequent fungicide applications.
The growing season is
extremely busy for producers and crop consultants and thus awareness of
developing issues on a regional- or prairie-wide basis is critical as one can
then prioritize the scouting of fields for specific issues that are just
starting to develop.
To help facilitate awareness
of developing plant disease issues on a regional- and prairie-wide basis, the
PCDMN and the three Prairie provincial pathologists have worked with colleagues
from the AAFC Geomatics Group. The
result of this collaboration is the development and deployment of the Prairie
Crop Disease Monitoring Network Quick Disease Reporter Tool (PCDMN QDRT).
The PCDMN QDRT can be
used to make quick general reports of diseases in common crops over the Prairie
region as part of the Prairie Crop Disease Management Network. This information can be used to identify
regions where Prairie crop disease outbreaks are starting to occur and where
further in-crop scouting and risk assessment are needed, especially when a
fungicide application is being considered.
Please note that if
you are reporting on the observation of clubroot symptoms in Saskatchewan
canola fields you are asked to also report the case to the Saskatchewan
Ministry of Agriculture using the information outlined via this link: https://pubsaskdev.blob.core.windows.net/pubsask-prod/119190/Reporting%252Ba%252BClubroot%252BField%252Bin%252BSaskatchewan%252BWeb%252BPage.pdf.
If you have any
questions or would like to learn more about the PCDMN please visit: https://prairiecropdisease.blogspot.com/.
More information on disease identification, scouting tips and disease surveillance protocols can be found at: https://prairiecropdisease.blogspot.com/p/scouting-tips-calendar.html and https://prairiecropdisease.blogspot.com/p/surveillance-protocols.html.
More information on disease identification, scouting tips and disease surveillance protocols can be found at: https://prairiecropdisease.blogspot.com/p/scouting-tips-calendar.html and https://prairiecropdisease.blogspot.com/p/surveillance-protocols.html.
Contact info regarding the PCDMN and Provincial
Pathologists is as follows
PCDMN – T. Kelly
Turkington: kelly.turkington@agr.gc.ca;
Alberta Agriculture
and Forestry – Michael Harding: Michael.Harding@gov.ab.ca;
Saskatchewan Ministry
of Agriculture – Alireza Akhavan: alireza.akhavan@gov.sk.ca;
Manitoba Agriculture,
Food and Rural Initiatives – David Kaminski: David.Kaminski@gov.mb.ca.
On June 1, 2022 we launched the updated Prairie Crop Disease Monitoring Network Quick Disease Reporter Tool (PCDMN QDRT) for the 2022 growing season (https://prairiecropdisease.blogspot.com/2022/06/announcing-2022-launch-of-prairie-crop.html).
This blog post and others regarding the PCDMN QDRT in 2021 and 2022 are now outdated as various updates have been done with the app as of May 2023. These updates have been focused on addressing privacy concerns from farmers, crop consultants and others who may use the app as well as functionality. The new tutorial can be found at this link (https://prairiecropdisease.blogspot.com/2023/05/prairie-crop-disease-monitoring-network.html), while the new QR code for the PCDMN QDRT app is as follows:
How do I access and use the PCDMN QDRT?
The PCDMN has prepared a tutorial outlining how to access and use the PCDMN QDRT. Before using the PCDMN QDRT please review the tutorial document (updated as of May 2023) that can be found at this link: PCDMN QDRT Tutorial.