Precision Tech and Biological Control Growing Into a Dynamic Duo for Ag

By Thomas Skernivitz|July 8, 2022

The best tag team going in agriculture these days might be the combination of biological controls and precision technologies. Just ask the good nematodes.

As high as Chris Thrasher is on the biologicals industry, the Director of North America at Agrauxine gets even more excited knowing that companies such as his can now take a biocontrol application and dot an “i” in the field.

“We can be more prescriptive in biologicals,” Thrasher says. “If we can go and pinpoint a hot area in a field with, for example, nematodes, we don’t have to apply that $30-an-acre application to the whole field. We can go to that hot spot and, if we have the right type of biologicals, we can control the reproductive cycle of the nematodes. And we also know that there are good nematodes out there along with bad nematodes.”

What happens to the beneficial nematodes? Ideally, nothing, says Bond McInnes, Technical Service Manager with AgBiome. With the help of precision technologies, that is what separates biocontrols, he says, from conventional treatments — the ability to recognize, isolate, and protect beneficial organisms while eliminating the bad ones.

“It’s a great, booming area of science, and I see that as something that’s really evolving in terms of precision agricultural and scouting. Where do we need to spray? At what pest level? How do you incorporate?” McInnes says. “I see the biofungicides, insecticides, and nematicides really playing a big role in that because, in the past, we would just nuke everything in the soil. ‘Who cares?’ But now, ‘Hey, if we can impact this, we’re going to have a more vigorous plant on an annual or a perennial tree crop like citrus or almonds; we’re going to have long sustainability of that crop.’ There’s a lot of investment in agricultural production. You really need to maximize those investments.”