Many growers apply their crop protection products according to a strict spraying schedule. However, it also pays to look at the infection pressure. "With this you can quickly save on one and sometimes several sprayings per year," says Gert Sterenborg, arable farmer and who works at Dacom. Dacom's infection radar offers a solution.
As a farmer, Gert Sternborg knows it all too well, it is very useful to have insight into the infection pressure. "This allows you to better determine whether your crops are sufficiently protected." Together with his parents and uncle, the entrepreneur runs the Sterenborg-Kooij Partnership in Onstwedde, Groningen. On the arable and poultry farms, among other things, starch potatoes, sugar beet, grain, onions and winter field beans are grown.
The Dacom Disease Management module is used for cultivation. "This gives you very specific advice about whether or not to spray," says Sterenborg. "That advice is based, among other things, on crop growth, the emergence date and the spraying in the past. It is very accurate advice, but the disadvantage is that as a grower you have to enter a lot of data. In that regard, the infection radar is a good alternative. This can be consulted via Farmer&Bunder and very easy to use. You can see all over the Netherlands how high the expected infection pressure is."
Weather stations and forecast
The data on which the infection radar is based comes from the weather stations that Dacom has spread across the Netherlands. It concerns several weather stations per province that cover an area with a radius of about 20 kilometers. The weather forecast also influences the infection radar. Sterenborg: "For example, it may be that the chances of infection throughout the Netherlands are low today, but that in two days' time there will be an increased risk of infection from phytophthora in Zeeland. Then it is useful for growers and advisers in this region to look into to what extent the crops are protected."
Sterenborg, himself Product Owner of Dacom's advisory services, emphasizes that it is up to entrepreneurs themselves to draw conclusions. "The infection radar only says something about the conditions for fungi and other pests. It is not tailor-made advice. Other factors are also important for this, such as the plot, the planting or sowing date, crop growth and previous spraying."
Beneficial for wallet
The infection radar is interesting for a wide variety of crops, including sugar beets, potatoes, onions, chicory and carrots. Every crop has to deal with its own diseases and pests, of which it is interesting to know how high the infection pressure is. "Sometimes you can postpone spraying with that. For example, if you stick to a certain spraying schedule, but you see that the infection pressure is low in the coming days. That is not only more sustainable, but also more beneficial for the wallet."