Visit the Peace Region Forage Seed Association’s pest monitoring Facebook page for regular updates during the growing season and watch this webinar to learn more about the project.
Monitoring pest populations is critical for improved understanding and management of economically significant species. A monitoring network extends across the Prairie provinces to provide information and updates on important pests to assist producers with management. During the Peace Adaptation Strategies planning process, the establishment of pest monitoring to provide similar support in the BC Peace was identified as a high priority.
The 2016 report describes outcomes of a two-year pilot project, including monitoring activities, results, surveys for weeds and pathology and lessons learned that provide guidance for future monitoring work in the Peace. Monitoring took place across the highest density grain area by collecting data from participating farms.
The 2022 season report summarizes the BC Peace pest & disease monitoring outcomes for the season. This project built on the existing pest monitoring “infrastructure” (physical and labour/experience) and included an increase in the number of samples collected and processed, the addition of monitoring sites, and the upgrading of sample storage and processing capacity through additional equipment.
Objectives
- To enhance agricultural pest monitoring capacity, particularly for sample processing
- To expand the scope of monitoring activities through increased crop disease surveying and inclusion of new crop species and production systems
- To increase knowledge transfer and producer uptake/application of monitoring information
- To analyse the relationship between pest presence and weather conditions using monitoring data
- To develop a (funding/sustainability) plan to maintain pest monitoring activities into the future
