The agricultural community in Illinois now has a new Internet tool to track growth
cycles of agricultural pests and Illinois crops using daily degree day totals. This
collaborative effort between scientists from the Illinois State Water Survey
(http://www.sws.uiuc.edu/), a division of the Illinois Department of Natural Resources,
and the Integrated Pest Management Program, Department of Crop Sciences
(http://www.cropsci.uiuc.edu/) at the University of Illinois combines daily weather data
and pest information to generate Web pages that show current degree day totals in
Illinois associated with pests and crop development.
“Growth of pests and crops in Illinois can be tracked and projected by
maintaining an account of the ‘heat’ accumulated during each growing season. This
process involves comparison of daily maximum and minimum temperatures to a base
temperature, specific for a particular pest or crop, above which development of the pest
or crop will occur,” said Water Survey meteorologist Bob Scott. Computer algorithms
were developed for tracking 30 agricultural pests and also determining growing degree
day totals for corn and cold weather crops.
Degree day accumulations for some pests, regardless of their location in Illinois,
have a specific calendar day when heat tracking begins, such as January 1 each year.
Local accumulations for other pests and those for crops are tied to specific, user-provided events: first spring trapping of adult pests, sighting of insect eggs, planting
date, etc. One- and two-week degree day projections, based on climate records at each
site, also are included. The tool also produces maps of degree day totals and
projections for the entire state where appropriate.
“This information is computed from data collected at 19 weather sites across
Illinois and is specific for those locations,” said Scott.
”These data are valuable in helping users determine when to monitor their fields
for approaching stages of pest development and with the subsequent operational
decisions that follow,” added Kelly Cook, IPM entomologist, Department of Crop
Sciences.
All degree day information is computed from data collected through the day just
prior to the day each user accesses the system. In general, up-to-date information will
be available by 4:00 a.m., seven days a week. The URLs are
http://www.sws.uiuc.edu/warm/agdata.asp (pests and crops) and
http://www.ipm.uiuc.edu/degreedays (pests).
