Western Australia
May 20, 2015
DAFWA senior research officer Mario D’Antuono (left) and Dr Darshan Sharma have developed a new online tool, MyPaddock, for grain growers to address wheat production problems.
A new online tool to assist wheat growers to overcome problems in the paddock and boost yield and profitability has been launched by the Department of Agriculture and Food.
The MyPaddock website alerts growers to production constraints, quantifies the potential yield loss via a traffic light system and then directs them to the most up-to-date solution.
The model draws on research from department and other scientists and extensive data collected from 184 paddocks over the past five years as part of the department’s Focus Paddocks project, funded by the Grains Research and Development Corporation.
The tool’s development was led by senior research officer Darshan Sharma, who said MyPaddock would be a valuable tool for growers, consultants and agronomists.
“MyPaddock enables users to input their own data for individual paddocks including, management practices, pest and disease test results, soil acidity levels, soil nutrition, soil compaction and weeds,” Dr Sharma said.
“The tool then provides a four-colour traffic light warning on the risk corresponding to the potential yield loss, where red is a reduction of 25 per cent, orange 15-25 per cent, yellow 5-15per cent and green less than 5 per cent.
“It also provides an overview of the critical intervals for the traffic light colour for each constraint, as well as links to further tools and background information.”
MyPaddock has been designed to link to a suite of department tools to respond to production constraints, including MyCrop, Weed Seed Wizard, as well as other industry tools.
“For example, if a grower ended up with a ‘orange light’ for root lesion nematodes, they can click on the ‘relevant models’ link to access MyCrop, which would provide the latest information to reduce the impact of the pathogen,” Dr Sharma said.
“The beauty of MyPaddock is that it can be used in several ways; as a paddock planning tool before the season begins, a paddock management tool during the growing season or a tool to review a paddock’s performance.”
MyPaddock can also be used in the professional sector to upskill advisors and to stimulate scientific research.
“It is well suited as a training tool as it is a convenient product that houses the critical limits for many production variables,” Dr Sharma said.
“It is also a useful way to identify knowledge gaps, where further research might need to be undertaken.”
While MyPaddock has been developed for wheat growers, there are plans to expand the model to other crops in the future.
MyPaddock is available on the department’s website agric.wa.gov.au by searching for ‘mypaddock’.
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