The ADAS IPM Planning Tool has been developed by ADAS and SRUC with the NFU, and tested by farmers and agronomists, and is an alternative IPM planning resource to the VI IPM Plans.
The tool provides guidance on IPM actions that are effective to control the pests, weeds and diseases on your farm on a crop specific basis, linking to independent sources of information to enable a more in-depth approach to IPM strategy building than the VI IPM plan.
Since the launch of the ADAS IPM Planning Tool late last year, more than 400 registered farmers, agronomists, and advisors have produced 600 IPM cropping plans.
In response to user feedback so far, an updated version of the tool has been released with enhanced functionality including:
- Expanded crop types, including spring barley, wheat and beans, to cover more diverse rotations and support decisions on spring crops in IPM strategies.
- The ability to view the previous year’s pest, weeds and disease issues, practices, and comments so farm progress of IPM uptake can be recorded.
- The option to duplicate previous plans as a starting point for the following year, which will speed up the process of producing a new plan and allow time for review and reflection of selected strategies.
A user-friendly tool
Farmers and agronomists who have used the tool have appreciated the ease of use and the depth of information available on IPM approaches across all the major field crops.
Speaking at the AICC annual conference last week, Simon Senior, independent agronomist said, “It is a very useful user friendly tool, from which both myself and my clients have learned a great deal from the IPM measures outlined”.
Agronomist Andrew Beeney agreed, “The tool has certainly encouraged me to discuss it with my clients, so that it encourages them to complete an IPM plan”.
Neil Paveley, Technical Director for Crop Protection in ADAS, added “We are delighted that farmers and agronomists are finding the IPM Tool useful for crop planning, and that the number of users is growing fast.”
Both the VI IPM Plans and the ADAS IPM Planning Tool are freely available at NFUonline.
The IPM Planning Tool has been developed by ADAS, NFU, SRUC and Voluntary Initiative to help farmers create crop specific IPM management plans, and can be used as an option to fulfil the requirement of SFI (Sustainable Farming Incentive) paid action ‘IPM 1 Assess integrated pest management and produce a plan’.
