ADAS has released a new update to its Integrated Pest Management (IPM) tool. The enhanced facility will be of specific interest to growers and crop advisors.
The tool provides specific guidance on the IPM control measures that are relevant to crop management and the particular pests, weeds and diseases that are a problem on farms.
Using the tool will also complete and record an IPM plan for crops.
Funded by the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (Defra), the planning tool has been used by over 2,000 registered farmers, agronomists and advisors in the UK since 2023 to create over 5,400 bespoke IPM cropping plans for free online.
Improvements to pest management tool
Courtesy of the updates tool, improved functionality is provided with regard to a number of key crop management objectives.
These include the option to add information on the success of previous IPM control measures, thereby enhancing the ability to review the farm progress of IPM uptake.
Also featured is an improved layout of the summary and reporting function, which now includes all the information entered into the IPM plans by the user to create better IPM summaries.
Significantly, new general questions added for those who keep livestock. There is also an ability to add land areas for each crop type entered into the IPM plans.
Mark Ramsden, IPM principal consultant at ADAS, commented:
“Effective crop protection depends on making informed, evidence‑based decisions, and the IPM Planning Tool helps growers do that.
“By guiding users towards integrated monitoring, thresholds and targeted interventions, users of the tool are supported to use pesticides only where and when they truly add value.
“By embedding IPM planning into routine decision‑making, we not only improve the reliability of pest management today but also protect active ingredients, slow resistance development, and support the long‑term sustainability of cropping systems and wider environmental health in the UK.”
The IPM tool was produced by crop protection and IPM specialists at ADAS and SRUC.
It links to guidance from AHDB and other independent sources. The development of the tool was funded by Defra as part of a test and trial project.
The principles associated with IPM will also be of direct interest to Irish tillage farmers.
Recent years have seen crop production challenged by a combination of growing pest resistance to herbicides and fungicides in tandem with the reduced availability of new crop management chemistries.
