Western Australia
September 9, 2015
DAFWA senior research officer Sally Pelzer (right) shows Kylee Nelson (left) and Amy Fuchsbichler from the CBH Group the free MyCrop apps at the recent Mingenew-Irwin Group field day.
Growers attending spring field days are now able to research the new crop varieties on show from the palm of their hands.
The Department of Agriculture and Food’s MyCrop app for mobile devices now includes a variety selector for wheat and barley.
Department senior research officer Sally Peltzer said the app provided valuable information on both new and old varieties, taken from the variety sowing guides for Western Australia.
“Growers will be able to look at the crop in the ground at the field day, while they download all the data about the variety and its performance and disease rating,” Dr Peltzer said.
“My colleagues and I will be at many of these field days and we look forward to showing growers how to get the most out of this very useful decision making tool.”
The free MyCrop app was recently updated and expanded and now includes information for wheat, barley, canola and pulses.
Dr Peltzer said people downloading the app and those who had the previous version should note that they need to download individual apps for wheat, barley, canola and pulses.
“It is very easy to download each individual MyCrop app for each crop,” she said.
“Once you’ve got it you can take it anywhere, as you don’t need the internet to use it.”
There have been more than 500 downloads of the MyCrop app since it was updated in July, on top of the 2000 downloads since it was launched in 2013.
The app is particularly useful at this time of the year for growers to diagnose crop pest and diseases in their paddocks.
“Growers can be standing in a crop, looking at a disease or nutritional symptom and use the apps to immediately and accurately diagnose what’s wrong, like stem or stripe rust in cereals, for example,” Dr Peltzer said.
“Each app contains a virtual library of hundreds of images and factsheets on specific diseases and pests, as well as nutritional, environmental and soil issues that people can see on their smart phone or tablet and compare in the paddock.”
Growers can then use the MyCrop app’s MyEconomic tool to calculate the risk of the pest or disease to their crop and to evaluate treatment options.
MyCrop also has a Crop Check function that provides crop monitoring tips throughout the year.
The app can also be used to send a direct report of a pest to the department’s PestFax map database.
The original MyCrop app was developed by the department with support from the Grains Research and Development Corporation.
The MyCrop apps for wheat, barley, canola and pulses can be downloaded cost free from the iTunes and Google Play stores.
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