Based in the North Burnett region, they produce 10 varieties on 173 hectares of citrus orchards spread across four farms, including lemons, mandarins, navel oranges and Valencia oranges.
While it’s a great region for growing citrus, Mr Parr says the North Burnett is not without pest challenges, such as California red scale, soft scales that can produce a sooty mould on the fruit, as well as mealybug and thrips.
“Severe infestations of these sorts of pests can cause downgrades in packouts, impacting yields and the quality of the fruit that we get through the pack shed,” he said.
A key tool in the battle against these damaging pests is Movento from Bayer, which the Parrs have used for over a decade, after getting involved in early trials of the insecticide.
Movento is used to control California red scale, thrips and soft scale, and provides suppression of mealybug. Mr Parr says it was clear right from that initial trial work that the product had plenty to offer.
“When we target California red scale, we find we get the added benefit of soft scale control and some control of thrips,” he said.
The operation uses Movento on an as needs basis through its IPM program, keeping a close eye on thresholds of pests and diseases through a monitoring service. A key benefit of the product is that it doesn't affect aphytis, a small parasitic wasp used to control Californian red scale.
“We're not blanket spraying Movento by any means, but certainly most blocks will see it once every two years, sometimes a bit more frequently, and it's targeted when we reach those thresholds,” Mr Parr said.
“Movento fits well because it gives us options where we can get multiple benefits by targeting two or more pests with the same spray. We can use it flexibly, and it's quite soft on beneficial insects, so we're happy with that.
“We're seeing really good efficacy with one spray, it’s very rare that we have to go and do a second application, especially for California red scale.”
Business territory manager for Bayer, Lore Saupp-Saunders, provides support to citrus growers through the region, and has seen Movento play a key role for many, including for the Queensland Citrus business.
“It is an important tool for Mr Parr and his team to control California red scale and other sucking pests efficaciously with only one pass, which is important as these pests have a high potential to impact yield and downgrade fruit,” she said.
“Using Movento early in the season can help produce a clean piece of fruit, which basically means more quality fruit in a box, which can result in more income for the grower.”
She said Movento is a two-way systemic insecticide, which is very important to manage cryptic pests such as mealybug or thrips under the calyx and between touching fruit.
“It’s an advantage over a contact insecticide, as Movento gets taken up into the fruit and therefore is actually present in places where a contact insecticide can't touch,” Ms Saupp-Saunders said.
“Key to the two-way systemicity is using an oil-based adjuvant to help the chemistry get into the sap stream and moving up and down the plant.”
Mr Parr has found significant benefit from the ability of Movento to move two ways through the plant and find pests in areas which are hard to get to with a cover spray.
“We find the two-way systemicity quite beneficial for our heavy yielding mandarin varieties that have a lot of touching fruit, and also especially with some lemon varieties that get a lot of issues under the calyx with thrips,” he said.
Mr Parr has also found being able to mix Movento in the same spray application with fungicides increases the efficiency of their program, especially in wet years like 2021.
“Obviously if we can spray Movento by itself with lower volume per hectare, we try to, but we've also got the flexibility to mix it with our fungicide sprays so that we can fit it into our programs all the time.”
Going forward, Mr Parr believes Movento will continue to play an important role in how he's growing citrus.
“We haven't seen anything that quite gives us the flexibility in terms of fitting with our fungicide programs in Queensland or gives us the benefit of dual pest action at the same time.
“We're seeing lifts of 5–10 per cent of packouts when we're using Movento, which increases the returns and the bottom line. As we develop the orchards up over the next two years, we'll see more and more use of Movento around the property.”
