Corn and soybean disease pressure can shift quickly as the growing season progresses. Even if fields look clean, growers should watch local disease reports, scout field conditions, and finalize their fungicide plans before diseases and crop stress limit yield potential. Dean Grossnickle with Syngenta shares what he’s seeing in the field and what growers can do to protect their bottom line.
“Well, right now what we have going on, especially here in Iowa and even in parts of Nebraska and Kansas, we’ve kind of been in a wet pattern for the last, I’d say three to four weeks, especially in that eastern Nebraska, eastern Kansas, all of Iowa, southern Minnesota, even parts of South Dakota, been getting some, quite a lot of rain. So, the conditions are wet and humid, and we have reports of tar spot scattered throughout Iowa, same way with Kansas and Nebraska.”
Because the existing growing conditions are favoring disease, it’s pertinent to protect those plants.
“A lot of times, like with Miravis Neo, Trivapro, our lead fungicides, they have both plant health benefits, as well as disease protection. So, we’re getting kind of double duty out of them. So, we can put these on at VT, right when those tassels are starting to poke out, we’re going to protect our plant from disease setting in, knowing that there’s already a little bit out there, but it’s not rampant per se. So, we’re not devastating our crop yet, get that protection on. And then again, we are going to protect ourselves through that critical ear fill time here from VT up to about, you know, at least a good 40 to 45 days into that ear fill time.”
In addition to tar spot, which enjoys cool, wet conditions, northern corn leaf blight also has Dean’s attention.
Diseases like frogeye leaf spot and brown spot could have a tendency to develop in the soybean crop, requiring a fungicide with an SDHI (Succinate Dehydrogenase Inhibitor) – a chemical compound to protect against mold and fungi. Dean explains.
“If we do see those diseases like frogeye leaf spot, a lot of it, according to the Iowa State University and other universities, is already QOI resistant, meaning it’s resistant to the strobilurin fungicides like Azoxystrobin or even some of the other ones that you may hear out there. So, if that’s the case, you want to pick a product that has an SDHI in it like Miravis Neo, like a Trivapro, and that’s going to again be able to then help you maximize those uses on the soybean crops, especially when you have resistant brown spot and or a frogeye leaf spot out there.”
Dean underscores the importance of protecting against ear rots as well, especially if that crop is being fed to livestock.
“I think one of the things that we fail to remember sometimes is some of the ear rots that we have. And really, a lot of them are fusarium-based. The ADEPIDYN component of Miravis Neo is a great product against fusarium. And we can really protect, well, one of the only products out there that can protect against some of these ear rots we see. Why is that important? Specifically, if you’re a grower that uses his corn for silage or feeding to cattle, mycotoxins can be really, really problematic. So anytime we can reduce that out there, we’re going to be money ahead. And again, it’s going to be something that we can feed our livestock without the worry of these mycotoxins.”
To learn more about the performance edge of Miravis Neo, visit SyngentaUS.com/NeoWins. Always read and follow label instructions.