Inconsistent weather conditions may have been a blessing in disguise for grain farmers heading into September with minimal disease pressure. Pioneer field agronomist Brad Mason shares that the back in forth in hot and cooler temperatures may have helped lessen disease pressure in fields.
“Weeks went by and we kept scouting and looking at field after field, and there wasn’t a ton of pressure, whether it be from tar spot or gray leaf spot. What I chalk it up to is we were consistently inconsistent- what it ultimately means is that we were hot for a while, right when a disease should take hold, like gray leaf spot, we turn to cold, and we never really had an environment to allow a single disease to take hold,” says Mason. “As we look at, the fields here the last couple of weeks, you can find some of those diseases, but they’re not as prevalent as we have seen them in years past, and they’re not as aggressive.”
Mason adds that more disease is popping up in May corn and fields that are under more stress, but overall, disease load is down when compared to other years.
