The University of Queensland (UQ) is partnering with the Queensland Department of Agriculture and Fisheries (DAF) to create a guideline to help Australian grain growers manage fall armyworm (FAW) to save crops and finances.
The highly invasive pest was discovered in Australia three years ago and poses a significant risk to broadacre crops such as maize and sorghum.
Dr Joe Eyre from UQ’s Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation (QAAFI) is collaborating with DAF on the project funded by the Grains Research and Development Corporation (GRDC) and will establish economic thresholds for the pest to provide farmers with certainty.
Dr Eyre stated that the international recommendations for treating FAW are hazy, and how they apply to the Australian environment remains unknown.
“The current recommendations are to take action based on obvious damage from the caterpillars, which may not be the most economically efficient or ecologically friendly time to protect crops,” Dr Eyre said.
The research will investigate the relationship between the time of an infestation, its density, and crop response.
“Fall armyworm are easy to treat when small so we need to predict what the likely yield loss is going to be if the infestation is not treated, as opposed to spending money on treatments when it is too late or when FAW are unlikely to result in yield penalty,” Dr Eyre stated.
Dr Eyre added that establishing these economic thresholds would be critical to managing autumn armyworm in broadacre crops.
According to DAF’s Dr Melina Miles, field trials in maize and sorghum at UQ’s Gatton campus are yielding crucial data.
“We haven’t had a severe defoliating pest before and most producers haven’t seen a shredded crop, so there’s a lot to learn,” Dr Miles said.
Because fall armyworm is so devastating and new, Dr Miles stated that Australia’s grains industry is accustomed to having economic thresholds on which to base crop management decisions.
The guidelines will be finalised by June 2024, but Dr Eyre and Dr Miles are already presenting their work at industry gatherings.
