Crop rotation is not a reliable management strategy against tar spot, according to the recent Tar Spot Summit by AgReliant Genetics.
Damon Smith, an Extension plant pathologist with the University of Wisconsin-Madison, says growers shouldn’t change their cropping or tillage systems.
“We see little, tiny incremental decreases in disease with residue management and crop rotation but they aren’t the end all be all and so I don’t think a farmer needs to go in and change the whole operation just to manage tar spot,” he says.
