A seed company agronomist says corn tar spot is impacting a larger area in the Midwest this year. Barry Sutton with Dairyland Seed says, “They first discovered it in Indiana in 2015, a couple of locations in 2016 in northern Illinois, and this year it’s very widespread in Indiana, northern Illinois, southeast Wisconsin, and northeast Iowa.”
Sutton tells Brownfield identifying tar spot isn’t difficult. “Black spots on the leaf that you cannot rub off, and then a lot of the plants will further exhibit the secondary phase of the disease where the top part of the plant starts to die back.”
And, Sutton says farmers need to scout fields to look for damage, because once Tar Spot takes over, harvesting early is better than waiting because of the quickly-rotting stalk.
Continue reading Tar Spot is affecting more Midwest corn at Brownfield Ag News.
