BCG – Technical Bulletin – No: 1 -08/04/2020

In the northern Mallee, reports of Etiella and Heliothis may create more activity in the coming days and weeks. For the southern Mallee, most growers are looking for more rain to protect yield potential, and late fungicide sprays have gone out on wheat.

In the Wimmera (North, Central and West) soil moisture levels are good (explained later in this bulletin) and there are isolated reports of armyworm activity that warrant some monitoring, particularly in cereal on cereal rotations.

Some action points from recent BCG events: leave the fenceline and get out into your crops to assess for potential frost or heat stress damage, adjust your header set up ready for the coming months, succession planning is an ongoing process and farming is about decision making and we can only influence the quality of our decision making by acting more consciously on the best available knowledge.

• Insect activity is increasing under favourable conditions, though few cases have reached economic thresholds for control.
• Low levels of stripe rust are being detected across Western Victoria, however growers with robust programs that included fungicide at sowing are reporting little to no evidence of foliar disease.
• Low GSR deciles, frosts in early September and favourable prices have growers considering cutting crops for hay instead of harvesting for grain.
• Preparations for harvest are underway.

• Cereals are progressing from late tillering through to GS32 (second node), with stronger canopy development following recent moisture.
• Canola ranges from cabbaging to bud elongation, with some early-sown paddocks now reaching early flowering.
• Pest activity remains on the radar; Lucerne flea is being reported widely across the Wimmera–Mallee, Red-legged Earth Mite pressure is present in parts of the North Central and Wimmera and evidence of mouse damage has been observed in several Wimmera paddocks, highlighting the need for ongoing monitoring.