Scouting Tips

Disease Scouting Playing Cards

Cards include key symptoms and management strategies for a number of field crop diseases have been created by Prairie Crop Disease Monitoring Network.  

Free downloadable PDF versions of the playing cards are available below – click each disease title!

Canola

Wheat

Barley

Pulses

Cereals

Disease Scouting/Monitoring Protocols

Here you can find suggested protocols for in-field scouting and assessment for various field crop diseases.  All protocols have the following: 

  1. General information regarding the main disease issues for a particular crop type;
  2. Suggested surveillance protocols in terms of sampling patterns and the number of sites per field and the number of plants or plant parts evaluated per site; 
  3. Suggested rating schemes for individual disease issues; 
  4. Where available, diagrammatic disease assessment keys illustrating low to severe levels of disease; 
  5. Where available and appropriate, economic or disease/pathogen thresholds to facilitate the prudent use of fungicides; and 
  6. Where available, protocols to estimate potential yield losses.  

Free downloadable PDF versions of the scouting/monitoring protocols are available below – click each crop and disease title!

Canola


Wheat


Barley


Pulses

Biosecurity Protocols

Surveillance activities help to create awareness and knowledge regarding disease risk and/or the prevalence, severity, and impact of field crop diseases, as well as the nature of their causal agents.  However, one must use caution to avoid inadvertently spreading crop pests into or from the fields being surveyed.   

Here are some key sources of information that outline protocols and standards for limiting the risk of crop pest spread while conducting plant disease surveillance activities: