Disease
Bayer Crop Science has unveiled a novel approach to the discovery and development of crop protection solutions, called CropKey. Company officials say it is helping them bring new products to the marketplace faster.
From lubricating booms to cleaning and replacing spray tips, ace mechanic Dan Anderson emphasizes the importance of prioritizing upkeep during the spraying season.
The agency recently launched a new initiative called Acres. Scientists plan for the data gathered through the program to help farmers with all kinds of decisions, from water use to what crops to plant and when.
Similarly, Ken Ferrie says to time your post-herbicide application in corn based on weed size and to address cutworm based on the level of damage you find. One pass in the field could work for both, but don’t bet on it.
Before planting even starts, diseases are likely on soil residue. That includes tar spot. While many believe rainfall and temperatures are key tar spot drivers, Agronomist Missy Bauer says there’s a third indicator.
As you pencil out your crop management plan for this year, assess your risk for tar spot. Then, be proactive.
Unlike the early tar spot problem farmers experienced in 2021, the disease wasn’t first reported in Indiana until August this year. Darcy Telenko studies the timing of fungicide applications in battling tar spot.
Problems like tar spot get tons of attention because of the highly visible yield loss they cause in-season. Seedling diseases can pack the same punch. Some experts claim Pythium is the No. 1 disease issue in corn.
Cornfields hit by the disease in 2021 are at risk from a homegrown infection in 2023, if you’re in a corn-soybean rotation. Hard rains prior to crop canopy are an added concern. They splash inoculant onto corn plants.
If your traditional approach to fungicide applications in corn is to wait until you see signs of disease pressure, it could be time to rethink your strategy.
Are your corn hybrids undergoing stress 10 to 15 days before black layer and experiencing top kill? That’s going to hurt kernel depth and knock off those top-end yields you want to combine.
This late season disease is nothing to hit the snooze button on. “This is a disease you have to pay attention to,” says Dr. Nathan Kleczewski, plant pathologist with Growmark.
With tar spot’s ability to rapidly spread, agronomists fear another wave of the disease will hit the Midwest again this season.
Evaluate your crop’s vulnerability to the destructive force of tar spot.
Availability could be a challenge this season. If you can only make one application, pull the trigger between tassel and R3 in corn and between R2 and R3 in soybeans, advises Ken Ferrie, Farm Journal Field Agronomist.
Yield losses of 5 percent are par for the course in second-year soybeans. Pest problems can boost those losses to 50 percent or more.
There’s plenty of disease inoculum in cornfields across the Midwest. It’s just a matter of whether Mother Nature will unleash the devastation this season that many farmers saw in 2021.
These biological products have the ability to increase germination, improve nutrient uptake, enhance nutrient-use efficiency and increase tolerance to and recovery from abiotic stresses.
The disease is shutting down corn crop growth prematurely in parts of Illinois, especially in fields with D hybrids. You may need to harvest those fields sooner than later.
Check the stalk quality of D and L-1 hybrids. One has been hit by late-season disease, while high winds have taken a toll on the other.
Cornfields that had promised above-average or record yields, prior to being affected, are now more likely to produce average results at harvest.
Crops across much of the state look good heading into the home stretch but still need to be monitored for insects and disease.
Corteva Agriscience has a robust number of products it expects to introduce to U.S. farmers between now and 2023 for use in more than 10 crops.
Such products can help prevent or ward off pathogenic fungi and bacteria and, in some cases, be paired with conventional disease-control measures.
The fungicide is based on picarbutrazox and will protect corn and soybean seedlings from blight and damping-off diseases.
Because of resistance to some of the existing technology in the marketplace, farmers need to evaluate carefully which product can effectively address the specific foliar diseases in their fields.
EPA-approved CeraMax prevents the soil-borne fungal pathogen Fusarium virguliforme from taking soybean yield potential captive.
Tar Spot has been lurking in Midwest fields since 2015—and possibly even earlier by escaping detection. In five years, it has spread to eight states and decimated yield potential in its path.
“It’s important to remember 2019 had excess rainfall and high humidity. So, it was a prime environment for a lot of diseases, and with the increase in disease, we have a lot of inoculum in the soil” says Randy Kool
A recent discovery in Brazil shows that white mold, while typically just a problem for northern states, could take root in southern states—if this strain makes it to the U.S.