“We’ve just got to ride this year out…”
“We’ve just had wet-dry-wet-dry….”
“We’ve had one of the best fungicides available – dry weather.”
“Most will be happy with an average result.”
2023, not great, but okay. This seems to be how most felt about the season, with all four of the above phrases attributed to agronomists from different states when asked to describe 2023.
However, the low disease levels didn’t stop us writing/recording about what happened across Australia! Nor did it stop us from sharing our discoveries from the CCDM team of researchers. As we all know, high disease levels will come again, and it’s always good to be ready for when it does – that’s right disease, we’re watching you…
So what was the most popular?
Our top 3 most-read CCDM Spotlight Articles were:
- Queensland joins the rest of Australia with fungicide resistance. Australian grain growers, we’re now all in this together. We’re sad to say it, that unfortunately for Queensland, this state has now become the last state to join the rest of the Australian grain growing states with a case of fungicide resistance.
- Resistant varieties the best way to fight sclero, and we’re getting there. In this article we tell sclerotinia to find another plant species to infect, because we’ve discovered a way to make current varieties partially resistant to the disease.
- Net blotch project reveals the real story of fungicide resistance in WA. In this Spotlight article, we share recent results from our Barley Disease Cohort Project, where four years of research has led to a much clearer picture of the fungicide resistance situation in Southern WA.
Our top 3 most-listened to podcasts were:
- Explaining the science behind barley resistance and an update from a breeding company: In this episode, hear from CCDM’s barley disease researcher Simon Ellwood as he discusses the latest research in developing disease resistant barley, focusing on net form and spot form net blotch. Also, Tress Walmsley, CEO of Intergrain, talks about what they’re focusing on to improve crop varieties for growers.
- Final Seasonal Update with agronomists from WA, SA, NSW and QLD. For the final time this season we’ve asked three agronomists/advisors about the issues of the season and what they would have done in hindsight, with insights from Monica Field (WA), Mick Faulkner (SA) and Fred Broughton (NSW).
- Fungicide resistance: When you find out it’s a big problem, what do you do? In this episode, we’ve been able to dig a bit deeper into the situation of fungicide resistance in both spot form and net form net blotch in Southern WA, and work out why we are seeing such high levels of resistance to DMI fungicides in this region.
Our top 3 most-watched videos were:
- Southern WA Barley Disease Forum: Hear about the key messages from presenters on the topic of barley disease outbreaks in the region, and how to manage disease going forward.
- Barley Disease Cohort Project reveals fungicide resistance results: Hear from CCDM researcher Linda Thomson as she shares the latest results from this project, and from CCDM director Mark Gibberd about the impact of these results on Southern WA’s grains industry.
- Discovery to improve sclerotinia resistance in canola: Hear from CCDM researcher Toby Newman as he shares his latest discovery on sclerotinia stem rot, where his team found three genes associated with resistance to this disease.
Our top 3 most-clicked-on science publications were:
- Derbyshire, M.C., Raffaele, S., (2023). “Surface frustration re-patterning underlies the structural landscape and evolvability of fungal orphan candidate effectors” Nature Communications. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-40949-9
In this paper CCDM researchers have used Artificial Intelligence to explain how fungal pathogens such as those that cause grey mould and sclerotinia stem rot can continuously and successfully infect plants. Prefer the media release summary? Click here. - Olita, H. T., Sung, B., Hooper, B., Cao, Z., Lopez-Ruiz, F., & Gibberd, M. (2023) “The socio-economic impact of fungicide resistance in West Australia’s Wheatbelt.” Advances in Agronomy. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/bs.agron.2023.03.005
In this paper, results from a survey have revealed that growers are concerned about the threat of fungicide resistance and the economic impact it will have on their properties. - van den Bosch, F., Zerihun, A., Poole, N., Thomas, G., & Lopez-Ruiz, F. J. (2023). “Adjusting fungicide treatment programmes when resistance is developing: The case of spot-form net-blotch in Western Australia.” Plant Pathology. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/ppa.13726
In this paper, CCDM researchers offer an experiment-and-modelling-based guide to help growers adjust their fungicide treatment programmes when resistance is developing.
Thanks for reading, watching and listening to our material in 2023, and get ready for more interesting releases in 2024! If you have a friend or a colleague who may be interested in our work, please get them to sign up at the bottom of our website so they don’t miss out: https://www.ccdm.com.au/resources/
