Resources
Connecting a farm
Will Bowden, a fifth-generation farmer in Tasmania, leveraged irrigation and digital tools to remotely control 17 pivots, pumps, and reservoirs, reducing downtime and improving water management.
Case Studies
Validating True Infection Risk: Optimising Fungicide Timing with Airborne Pathogen Tracking
Farm
Simplot
Location
Bridport, Tasmania
Bridging the gap between environmental risk and actual pathogen presence to optimise fungicide applications, reduce chemical inputs, and protect crop yields.
Simplot is trialling advanced agricultural technology at their Bridport site to combat Early Blight (Alternaria spp.) in potato crops. All available disease risk models rely on weather only, and do not take into account whether a pathogen is actually present, and its quantity. Simplot integrated BioScout’s automated airborne spore-tracking technology to confirm whether the actual pathogen was present before spraying. This shift from predictive assumptions to near real-time biological data allows for highly targeted, precision disease management.
What was the challenge?
- Climate-driven disease pressure: Tasmania’s temperate, high-humidity climate creates ideal conditions for Early Blight, forcing growers to rely heavily on expensive, prophylactic calendar-based programs.
- Blind spots in traditional models: Weather-based disease models (like TOMCAST Mod2 or RH models) rely on generic weather readings only and assume spores are always present. This often triggers "false alarms" that lead to unnecessary spraying, or conversely, misses critical early-season spore blooms when weather seems benign. Furthermore, these publicly available models have not been calibrated or validated for Tasmanian weather conditions, their assumptions of spore presence still need empirical/in-field validation.
- Input and sustainability pressures: Spraying unnecessarily increases input costs, accelerates chemical resistance in pathogens, and wastes valuable tractor and labour hours.
What was the process?
- Deployment: Installed two BioScout automated spore traps (East and West units) in the field to continuously monitor and quantify airborne Alternaria concentrations.
- Employing Thresholds: Set a threshold of above 70 spores/ m³ air as a guide for high disease pressure events.
- Cross-Validation: Overlaid the real-time spore data with predictions from five different weather models (P-Days, DD, TOMCAST Mod2, RH, CD) to differentiate between "conducive weather" and "true infection risk."
● TOMCAST Mod2 is modified from the original TOMCAST model to predict leaf wetness from relative humidity and to incorporate the P-Days model for the initiation of epidemics. - Spray Program Review: Evaluated the timing of foliar fungicide applications (e.g., Difenoconazole) against the validated risk data to identify protection gaps and chemical reduction opportunities.
Results
The trial demonstrated that combining weather data with biological spore data paints a very different picture of field risk, highlighting clear opportunities to cut costs without sacrificing yield.
50% of foliar sprays may not have been required: Retrospective analysis of the late-season spray program showed that half of the applications occurred when spore pressure was low, meaning those inputs could have been skipped or better timed at higher risk periods.
33% of weather "alarms" downgraded: By verifying high-risk weather alerts with BioScout actual spore data, 33% of predicted infection events were downgraded to low-risk because the pathogen was not present in high numbers.
BioScout caught unpredicted early infections: The technology detected a massive spore bloom in early February that weather models missed. This spike likely caused infections, and it aligned with the latent period for the physical symptoms observed three weeks later, proving the system's value as an early-warning tool for curative action.
ROI
Financial:
BioScout operates as a yearly service of $10,000-$15,000 per unit per annum.
- Fixed (upfront) costs, e.g. hardware, installation costs: $0
- Variable (ongoing) additional costs, e.g. subscriptions, services: $0
- Maintenance cost and frequency: $0, maintenance once a year.
Cost savings achieved (per month / year):
Drone spray: $70/ha + GST. OR Helicopter spray: $60/ha +GST
Cost of Bravo/Score - $46.44/ha x 6 applications = $279/ha per season.
- Rough field size: 10ha. So total would be $2790 for chemicals, and $600-700 for spray.
Total cost of application + chemical = $3490 per season for a 10 ha paddock
Therefore total possible savings $1745 per season for a 10 ha paddock ($174.5/ha).
With a limited number of sprays, combined with high input costs, targeted spraying is essential for cost- effective management.
The potential of the technology beyond this cost savings: BioScout can also assist in resistance to fungicide assessment. If the spray is not effective when already applied at the right timing, there is an indication that the chemical is not efficacious anymore, perhaps applied against a resistant or mutated strain.
It’s futuristic at this stage for this work because we haven’t got the specific data in potatoes yet, but we could draw learnings from the application of BioScout on other crop trials and research
Other Case Studies
