ONE of the world’s leading Russian wheat aphid research authorities will visit SA next month to offer his knowledge and insights on management of the state’s newest broadacre cropping pest.
Entomology professor Frank Peairs, from the Department of Bioagricultural Sciences and Pest Management at Colorado State University in the United States, will headline a RWA “war room” briefing at a GRDC grains research update in Adelaide on February 7-8.
First detected in Australia on a property in the Mid North in May, RWA quickly became widespread across SA and Vic graingrowing areas and has also been detected in southern NSW.
Dr Peairs, who has extensive RWA research experience, will relay the latest understandings and lessons to come out of the US, where RWA is an established cropping pest.
The RWA briefing will also feature SARDI principal entomologist Greg Baker, who will provide an update on the spread of RWA during the 2016 cropping season and a forecast on what to expect in 2017.
AgXtra’s Belinda Rawnsley will report on the most recent results from trials on RWA chemical control options, while a panel discussion on RWA will also involve Maarten van Helden, a visiting scientist of integrated pest management and agro-ecology from Bordeaux Sciences Agro France, who has been assisting SARDI with RWA research activities.
- Details: grdc.com.au
