Ag Partners Agronomic Insights
 Carly ReinkeMorristown |
 Ethan BanyLake City |
 Pete CollinsStewartville |
WEST
Here on the West side, we have been WET. This is the main factor for diseases like Tar Spot and White Mold. Fungicide is our best way to prevent or reduce the effects of possible disease. We see a yield range gain of 7–20 bushels, with an average of 12 bushels when fungicide is applied on corn.
In the past when dealing with Tar Spot, our Southern and Eastern locations saw up to 50-bushel advantages to having fungicide applied.
On soybeans, we see a 3–6 bushel advantage to having a fungicide applied. Below you can see the results of “on the farm” soybean fungicide trials the Western territory has done in the last 3 years.
Contact your Ag Partners Agronomist to get more information on fungicide and create your game plan!
– Carly
I hope everyone has taken the time to enjoy the sunshine the past few days! We have been busy here in the east catching up on spraying soybeans, specifically soybeans that did not get a pre-emerge herbicide. The pre-emerge herbicide worked well holding back the weeds this year. When looking at the soybean fields make sure to keep an eye out for pesky volunteer corn. The volunteer corn can be controlled by simply adding a product such as Section Three.
It won’t be long until fungicide season is here! We must remember fungicide aids in disease control, plant health, and can potentially increase yields. Make sure to contact your local Ag Partners Agronomist to discuss your fungicide plans! – Ethan
Pictured below is volunteer corn in soybeans getting sprayed.
SOUTH
Flower Time and White Mold
The two most asked questions this week:
1. When is it going to stop raining long enough to get the crops sprayed?
2. Won’t the spray that we are using going to abort the flowers on the soybeans now that they are flowering?
The first one is easy to answer! “Who the heck knows!!!” …..Well it’s kind of an answer anyway.
Aborting flowers this early in the season is an interesting topic. While adequate soybean flowers are needed for subsequent reproductive development, soybeans are amazingly resilient to stress during flowering due to their ability to continue to develop flowers over several weeks. What most people don’t realize is just how many flowers are naturally aborted during the flowering cycle. Ohio State University says soybeans naturally abort 20 to 80% of its flowers. Thats a lot of flowers. Soybeans will produce many more flowers over a long period of time than can be supported by the plant as a mechanism to avoid the impact of short periods of stress.
There are some herbicides that will cause more stress than others but controlling the weeds far outweighs any short-term stress it may cause. In some cases, certain herbicides have even shown benefits from a little crop response toward helping with white mold. Cobra is one of those herbicides.
White mold conversations have went hand-in-hand with the aborting flowers conversation because that is the point of infection.
Some foliar applied fungicides and herbicides have efficacy against white mold. None offer complete control but can help in a lot of cases. Miravis Neo fungicide has shown to be effective in a lot of cases. The label calls for the first application to be made at R1(early bloom) to R2(full bloom). If a second application is needed, apply 14 days later at early pod formation (R3). I know what you thinking, “Good lord, the cost of two fungicide applications!” and I get it, but we have seen yield reductions of up to 40 bu/ac. Even if we can capture half of that, it’s an easy ROI.
Stay diligent looking at your crop. With this much moisture and heat, it may be setting us up for higher-than-normal disease pressure.
– Pete
