Many know the cliché, "The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result." The message is often lost, ignored, or misinterpreted. Case in point: how we approach tar spot and foliar diseases in general.
Think for a moment about COVID-19. COVID is here and has proven it is not going away. Just as there will forever be strains of influenza, there will always be some strain of COVID. The best we can do is use common sense. We look at the daily infection rates and take extra measures as necessary. If we feel ill, we take our temperature, monitor our health, and test if necessary.
Now, let’s look at foliar disease. The best we can do is use modified genetics that reduce susceptibility, perform field scouting to see if disease is showing up in our geography, and then, if the timing makes agronomic sense, apply a fungicide that has appropriate modes of action. We also spend an exorbitant amount of time and resources using satellite imagery, planes, and drones to get NDVI or thermal images to take the crop's temperature to see if it is sick. We then use this data to perform targeted scouting, looking in those hot areas for signs of disease or whatever else it is that is making the crop sick. We do the same thing repeatedly, year after year, with the goal of trying to stay enough ahead to control the severity of the sickness and save yield. But in the end, we use the same technology and practices that produce the same unpredictable outcome of a reactive approach. In the end there is no cure, only control that is sold as being proactive.
Agtrinsic®- A novel approach to disease management
The integration of imagery with machine learning has allowed us to rapidly transform data into actionable management decisions for farmers and agronomists. With Agtrinsic® we are no longer being proactive in the historical sense. In 2021, after 5 plus years of research, we set out to redefine what it means to be proactive in disease management by taking an approach that utilizes an integrated management strategy of scouting, imagery, microclimate, and supplemental scientific data that allowed us to tune our Agtrinsic® disease model to a higher degree of accuracy. By tackling the major complexities such as inoculum and pressure in the disease triangle, the science team has developed a truly proactive disease model that provides growers the ability to improve fungicide timing and application in a novel and efficacious way.
One of the key components of our disease model is our sensor network. Our first sensor, the Agtrinsic® DPM-1, is an easily deployable and cost-effective Edge-to-Enterprise IoT device that feeds the disease model. Agtrinsic® disease modeling, used with additional patented field level analytics, delivers informed and actionable disease insights to growers in hours, not days! In 2021, we modeled 4.2 million acres, and in the process, learned how to effectively scale our model. In 2022 we will be expanding the model to over 20 million acres and modeling multiple pathogens, including Tar Spot!
Agtrinsic® is transforming traditional field scouting by equipping growers and agronomists with the innovation, efficiency, knowledge, and confidence needed to digitally transform the traditional acre into innovative and more profitable field of the future!
