Insights · Disease forecast
A week of disease risk, from the weather where you are
Choose the diseases you watch. AgronomyNote reads the forecast for your district and shows a week of risk for each one, low, moderate or high, so you know when a crop is worth a closer look.
The diseases it covers
30 diseases across 11 crops: the rusts, blotches and leaf spots of the cereals, blackleg and sclerotinia in canola, and the main diseases of the pulses.
| Crop | Diseases |
|---|---|
| Wheat | Stripe rust, Leaf rust, Stem rust, Septoria tritici blotch, Yellow leaf spot, Septoria nodorum blotch, Powdery mildew, Fusarium head blight, Eyespot |
| Barley | Stem rust, Net form net blotch, Spot form net blotch, Barley leaf rust, Powdery mildew, Scald, Fusarium head blight, Eyespot, Ramularia leaf spot |
| Oats | Crown rust |
| Triticale | Stripe rust, Leaf rust, Stem rust, Fusarium head blight |
| Canola | Sclerotinia stem rot, Blackleg (crown canker), Upper canopy blackleg, White leaf spot, Downy mildew |
| Chickpea | Ascochyta blight, Botrytis grey mould, Sclerotinia, Phytophthora root rot |
| Lentil | Ascochyta blight, Botrytis grey mould, Sclerotinia |
| Faba bean | Ascochyta blight, Chocolate spot, Faba bean rust, Cercospora leaf spot, Sclerotinia |
| Field pea | Bacterial blight, Sclerotinia, Downy mildew, Powdery mildew |
| Lupin | Lupin anthracnose, Brown leaf spot, Sclerotinia |
| Vetch | Botrytis grey mould, Sclerotinia |
How a reading works
Each disease is read against the infection conditions published research describes for it, and the week’s forecast is counted against them. For stripe rust: an infection night is leaf wetness at 4–18 °C holding 4 hours or more on a cold night (mean under 12 °C), or 6 hours or more at any mean in the band; 3 such nights in a week reads High.
- Each day’s level is drawn as filled segments with a letter beneath, so it reads in full sun and never relies on colour alone.
- A disease shows only in the months it is active.
- Where growth stage matters, the reading says so, such as “If canola is flowering now”, rather than being hidden when the stage is unknown.
- Lupin anthracnose is notifiable in the eastern states, so there the card says that instead of giving a score.
- When risk is high and a paddock of that crop has no fungicide cover on record, the card counts them, such as “2 canola paddocks with no cover on record”. The cover comes from the sprays you log on fungicide cover.
What it does not do
It does not diagnose. A risk reading says the weather suits a disease; only you can say whether it is in the crop, and AgronomyNote never says what to spray. It tells you when to look, never what to do.
Questions agronomists ask
Which districts does the disease forecast cover?
Australian cropping districts. You choose which diseases you watch, so the list fits your crops and your district, and the forecast is the one for where you are.
Is the disease forecast a diagnosis?
No. AgronomyNote’s disease forecast rates how well the coming week’s weather suits each disease. Whether a disease is in the crop is something only a look at the crop can tell.
How far ahead does the disease forecast look?
A week, from the weather forecast for your location, one level for each day.
Can I record the diseases I actually find?
Yes. Say them in a note as you walk the paddock, and the What you found card counts every disease and pest you name across the season.
Know which week to walk the crop
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