EMILI is scouting canola fields on Innovation Farms powered by AgExpert this season to test the accuracy of Ukko Agro’s pre-commercial flea beetle pressure model, providing the company with feedback on user experience and commercial applicability.
Flea beetles are problematic pests for canola producers, especially during the seedling stage where damage can lead to uneven height and maturity, reduced seed yield, and elevated chlorophyll content. According to Manitoba Agriculture, “yield losses of about 10 percent are common where flea beetles are abundant even when the crop is protected with insecticides.”
Flea beetles can cause longlasting damage to young canola plants (Photo credit: EMILI)
Ukko Agro is a Canadian agtech company that specializes in weather-driven predictive crop growth-stage and pest models. The pre-commercial flea beetle pressure model being tested on Innovation Farms is part of a portfolio of crop growth models and crop disease risk models that can be found in their ForeSite app.
“Beta testing the model with EMILI on Innovation Farms helps to ensure it is accurate before it is put in the hands of farmers and agronomists,” said Ukko Agro Chief Growth Officer Chad Matthies. “It’s very valuable to have an unbiased third party test this model to say that yes, it did help me prioritize my time and it did send me to the fields that were the highest risk. It allows us to put some baseline accuracy on this model before we launch it out.”
Ukko Agro’s Foresite app uses integrated and adaptive field modeling to feed information from a farmer’s own network of weather stations to provide accurate information about what is happening in the field. In the past they have also manufactured weather stations, some of which are installed on Innovation Farms, but the company’s focus is on software development rather than hardware.
Their flea beetle model uses weather data to understand the flea beetle’s feeding cycle. It is meant to provide a simple gauge for agronomists to determine which field needs their more immediate attention. The model is growth stage integrated so it turns on at the seedling stage and turns off once the canola plant gets past the four-leaf stage, which is the window where the plant is most susceptible.
“The model will help direct you to the fields that have the highest pressure or the highest risk activity,” explained Matthies. “It is meant to help agronomists and growers narrow their scouting focus based on fields with the highest potential pressure within susceptible growth stages.”
All of the models in their app are integrated with one another depending on the growth stage of the crop. They are also adaptive, allowing an agronomist to proactively enter early growth stage validations within the tool to increase the model’s accuracy throughout the season.
“Phase one of this solution is to put it in the hands of agronomists as a guided scouting tool to understand which fields have the lowest to highest risk. Once we get past this phase we will look at tweaking the model further,” said Matthias.
Learn more about Ukko Agro on EMILI’s website. For more insight into this and other activities, EMILI hosts field tours and demonstrations on Innovation Farms throughout the season to showcase new agricultural technologies, expand innovation opportunities, and increase understanding and adoption of digital tools.