UNDERSTANDING and monitoring your crops is the key to effectively using integrated pest management (IPM) on farm, according to SRUC’s Professor Fiona Burnett, who said the concept shouldn’t be as alien as some growers might think.

“I know that IPM is still seen by some as confusing and complicated, with the benefits not fully understood,” she said. “However, many farmers are already doing IPM without fully realising it.

“It isn’t a different or special form of farming or crop protection, it simply involves using your inputs more efficiently, monitoring regularly and adapting your programme depending on what you find in the field, or changing weather conditions.”

The key is planning, but remaining open to adjusting those plans over the course of a season. Farmers know the risks their farm is likely to present in terms of diseases, weeds and pests and any management strategy will be based on that knowledge, she pointed out. However, regular monitoring will allow farmers to alter inputs after assessing the environmental conditions.

AHDB’s manager of knowledge exchange in Scotland, Gavin Dick, said there are still too many farmers applying the same programme of fungicides and fertilisers across the entire farm, rather than tailoring it to specific crops and fields.

He said: “Growers really should be tailoring inputs according to the issues in individual fields and the strengths or weaknesses of the specific variety in that field and of course, the weather. In many ways, IPM is a form of precision farming, treating crops in a more specific and targeted way to control the use of potentially costly chemicals and reduce costs, while still achieving strong yields

“IPM is really a mind-set – taking a pro-active planning approach to reduce the incidence and severity of pests and disease rather than the current blanket or fire brigade approach many growers currently have towards crop protection.”

For Professor Burnett, IPM starts with two things which many growers are already doing – firstly, selecting disease resistant varieties and, secondly, monitoring the crop carefully.

"There are a number of AHDB-funded tools which should help growers adopt this more tailored approach including the recommended lists, which outline the key characteristics of cereal varieties, and disease monitoring tools such as those available for light leaf spot and ramularia," she pointed out.

The Scottish Government also has an IPM planning tool which growers can use to capture what they already do and explore where they could do more.

She added: “Developing a tailored IPM approach to crop management will help us maximise our production efficiency while minimising our impact of the environment. Not only that, but we know we have a growing issue of diseases becoming resistant to fungicides and the only way to extend the lifespan of these products is to use less of them.”