Growmark FS Seed Sales Agronomist Joe Franks informs this growing season has been fairly normal and trend line, but the dry August did not do any favors for the amount of disease pressure that became present, especially late in the season:
“Stalk rots are very evident, whether that is some interacts here and there but I would say a couple of diseases that have been fairly prevalent is tar spot again. It has kind of moved its way south over the last five years. It was prevalent in the leaf system and was evident anyway. We did not get to the cannibalization stage in corn and crown rot too was another one. Taking a lot of those things into consideration and understanding that every hybrid or set of genetics is a little bit different in disease response and fungicide response. For rotation purposes, if a farmer is thinking about going back to corn on corn, second year corn, or continuous corn we really look at those disease ratings very carefully when we are going to place seed for the next growing season,” Franks says.
