FARMER SURVEY OF YELLOW DWARF VIRUSES IN AUTUMN-SOWN CEREALS IN CANTERBURY

A postal survey of 700 Canterbury arable farmers was undertaken during August/September 1998 to ascertain the importance of yellow dwarf viruses (YDV) in autumn sown cereal crops. The survey also sought to document farmers’ practices for YDV management and the use to which they put the aphid monitoring and virus forecasting system provided by Crop & Food Research as well as their opinions on its effectiveness. The response rate was 24%. Most farmers had experienced YDV although for many it was not a recent problem. Many farmers employed more than one strategy for YDV management, the most common being to sow late or apply preventative insecticides to control aphid vectors of these viruses. The monitoring information had been seen by over 80% of respondents, and was judged as a good or satisfactory use of levy funds by over 92%. Information from the aphid monitoring virus forecasting system was used as an aid in the decision making process for YDV management.