Building on session one, the second session of the Teagasc tillage conference will focus on considerations for cereal disease control against the backdrop of reduced nutrient management scenarios.
Attendees will also hear the most up-to-date outputs from the current barley yellow dwarf viruses (BYDV) and grassweeds surveillance initiatives and gain a brief insight across a selection of research projects presently underway at the Teagasc Crops Research Centre, Oak Park.
The second session will take place on Thursday, January 27.
On the agenda
A major vector of BYDV, aphids, are the most significant pest of cereal crops in Ireland. Louise McNamara and Stephen Byrne will detail, for the first time, the prevalence of BYDV positive grain aphids plus the level of pyrethroid resistance in aphid populations sampled from the Teagasc suction tower network across 2020 (Carlow) and 2021 (Carlow and Cork).
From the data collated to date, it is clear that aphid numbers alone do not tell the full story.
By combining long-term, local and long distance migratory monitoring with molecular diagnostics, the surveillance programme is enhancing our understanding of BYDV risk and spread, as well as the emergence and development of insecticide resistance.
The results of a nationwide grassweeds field survey detailing the levels of herbicide resistance in black-grass and Italian ryegrass populations; the associated underlying resistance mechanisms and implications for control methods will be presented by Teagasc Researcher Vijaya Bhaskar.
The status of herbicide resistance in other species like wild oats, bromes and canary grass will also be updated.
Atikur Rahman will present updates on ongoing oats research, including the development of the Oats Grower’s Guide to support integrated crop management and preliminary results from recent field evaluation of oats heritage lines.
Diana Bucur will outline findings on the sensitivity of Irish light leaf spot populations to key fungicides used for its control. As light leaf spot continues to be the most economically destructive disease of oilseed rape in Ireland, these findings have implications for its continued control.
Elena Grosu will present early data on the potential of a novel bacterium to stimulate plant vigour. While Jack Jameson will report on the performance of crop establishment systems on Irish farms and farmers’ perceptions covering min-till, no-till and plough-based systems; both in growers own fields and in controlled experiments at Teagasc Oak Park.
This project includes a large study of growers’ perceptions of alternative crop establishment systems.
Session two will conclude with a focus on considerations for cereal disease control against the backdrop of reduced nutrient management scenarios. Agronomic decisions relating to disease control are critical to the success of cereal crops on farm each season.
Steven Kildea will provide an update on ongoing research underpinning these decisions, paying particular attention to the potential implications reduced nutrient management scenarios may have.
He will also present an overview of how changes in disease virulence and sensitivity to critical fungicides are impacting disease control decisions and how these maybe mitigated.
To register for the Virtual Tillage Conference, click here.
