A southern Illinois agronomist says this not the year to pull back on crop protection products, despite rising input costs.
Nick Frederking with AgriGold says grey leaf spot is starting in the crops. “We talk about Southern Rust and that is not even on the radar today,” he says. “It is still down south and there haven’t been a lot of weather events to push that up this way. And even if it would, we don’t have the conditions right now to come close to infection because we’re still fairly cool.”
For growers with corn in early vegetative stage, he says get a fungicide applied early. “I’m an advocate for two-pass fungicide operations,” he says. “So we can be proactive by getting in there and making a spray and inhibiting these spores before they get a chance at that initial infection.”
He tells Brownfield growers should be investing time scouting fields. “We’ve got to be out in the field, we’ve got to be taking notes,” he says. “If there is disease pressure, understand those conditions those diseases need to continue growth and make plans to address those issues if they’re popping up in your field.”
Frederking says he’s encouraging his growers to also keep an eye out for Tar Spot.
