Your Levy at Work

Business benchmarking tool webinar: A practical demonstration

Did you miss the online practical demonstration of the latest edition of the nursery business financial benchmarking tool?

The project team has made the webinar available online for any growers who missed the session. To watch the webinar, head to: youtube.com/watch?v=jLsESMDbXEo&feature=youtu.be

Conducted by Rebecca Moriarty and Jan Paul van Moort from ACIL Allen Consulting, this webinar engaged cross-industry representatives, sharing an overview of the latest Nursery Industry Statistics 2018-19 report, its key findings and how this data has been used to inform the tool.

The webinar explains how to navigate the tool, covering the basics on how to get started, through to how to input and interpret business data.

WEBINAR: Control, eradication and preparedness for exotic leafminers

by Levy Communications • NGI Updates

Production nurseries are encouraged to attend a webinar on exotic leafminers that will be held on Thursday, 16 July 2020, to provide growers with an update on incursion risk, impact, surveillance procedures and management options if incursion occurs.

This webinar forms part of the levy funded ‘Research, Development and Extension program for control, eradication and preparedness of vegetable leafminer’ (MT16004) project, which is led by cesar with support from project partners Plant Health Australia, the University of Melbourne, Northern Australia Quarantine Strategy (NAQS) and AUSVEG.

MT18005 UPDATE – Using next generation sequencing to provide plant industry quick-access to new plant genetic material

by Levy Communications • NGI Updates

A joint-levy funded project is facilitating faster and more accurate screening methods on imported nursery planting stock to allow for the introduction of new genetic material that will help maintain diversity in changing environmental conditions, shoring up the future sustainability of the nursery industry.

‘Improving plant industry access to new genetics through faster and more accurate diagnostics using next generation sequencing’ (MT18005) project, is seeking to improve plant industry access to new genetics by enhancing the efficiency and effectiveness of virus detection at post-entry quarantine (PEQ) facilities.

July Pest of the Month: Algal leaf spot

by Levy Communications • NGI Updates

Name: Agal leaf spot (cephaleuros virescens)

Symptoms are mainly found on leaves but depending on the plant species it can infest twigs, limbs and fruit. The disease usually attack the leaves on low hanging branches without affecting higher foliage. Symptoms include green, yellow-green, or rust coloured leaf spots up to 5mm in size, which appear raised, roughly circular and cushion like.

Stems many develop cankers where infestation is high, and may be covered with reddish brown hairlike fruiting bodies and eventually produced rust-coloured “spores”. Fruit damage is limited to the skin with slightly sunken, cracked dark appearance.

NEW QDAF-led pest and disease webinars

by Levy Communications • NGI Updates

Growers and production staff are invited to attend a series of pest and disease webinars run by the Queensland Department of Agriculture and Fisheries (QDAF).

These online events aim to enhance the Australian nursery industry’s biosecurity measures by showcasing new pest and disease contingency plans and relaying new and updated information to growers.

QDAF pathologists will run a total of four webinars, two of which are in lieu of the annual face-to-face disease workshops and will look through the lens of Integrated Crop Management (ICM).

Implementing effective IPM using BioSecure HACCP procedures

by Levy Communications • NGI Updates

Thursday, 11 June 2020

The levy funded ‘Improving pest management for the nursery industry’ (NY17009) project has moved into the second phase, seeking to perform a cost benefit analysis on the implementation of elements of an Integrated Pest Management (IPM) program in production nurseries.

The project team at Greenlife Industry Australia have partnered with Biological Services, who will be using their expertise in pests and diseases, crop lifecycle, population thresholds and methods for management, to perform crop monitoring for the project and making recommendations to participating production nurseries.

During this phase, the seven participating production nurseries will begin implementing the four BioSecure HACCP procedures for ‘site surveillance’, ‘crop monitoring’, ‘materials import inspections’ and ‘materials dispatch inspections’ into their businesses.

The BioSecure HACCP procedures employed in this project will inform growers of the pest status within their crops at any given time, allowing for better decision making when selecting the most appropriate IPM management method. More