Scout Fields for Disease to Help 2020 Crop Finish Strong

The 2020 corn and soybean crops are shaping up nicely in many parts of the corn belt, but how does Indiana rate? The new Purdue Crop Chat podcast begins with an evaluation of the crops by Dr. Shaun Casteel, Purdue Extension soybean specialist, and he says both crops in this state do look really good.

“I think there is certainly some yield potential that’s I would say north of an average trend yield and certainly north of what we had last year which was a pretty late-planted crop,” he said. “I think the big thing that Bob (Nielsen) and I talk about on corn and soybeans is how are we going to finish this crop?”

Casteel says the soybean good to excellent crop ratings are as high as they have been in a long time, and they measure up to other years when we had good yields.

“Averaging 68 percent at the start of this week and if you look at some of the previous years that are good yielding years, that’s right on par with those mid-60’s for those years. In corn good to excellent rating we’re right in that same wheelhouse.”

Back to what Casteel asked, how are these crops going to finish? On the podcast Dr. Darcy Telenko, Purdue field crop pathologist, addresses what disease is lurking in those fields and whether they’ll interfere with the finish.

“We’ve had worry about different diseases moving in in both corn and beans,” Telenko said. “In particular, we’ve been watching tar spot, southern rust and gray leaf spot in corn, and then our team is also looking for frogeye leaf spot in soybeans. As the season started, we had some moisture in early June that may have triggered some tar spot in corn to start, but then we went hot and dry. So, that slows down many of our foliar diseases that we’re watching for. That hot and dry during the end of June to early July slowed it down, but then this recent rain that’s moved across the state. I think it is time to get out and start looking to make a decision if you want to control a disease or put out a fungicide application.”

Listen to the podcast for discussion about fungicide treatments and determining where and when to use them. Purdue Crop Chat is sponsored by the Indiana corn and soybean checkoffs, the Indiana Corn Marketing Council, and the Indiana Soybean Alliance, using your checkoff funding to deliver relevant research that farmers can put into practice, to grow value and ROI for your crops through marketing and education, and building demand and broader markets for Indiana’s corn and soybean farmers.

Listen to the new Purdue Crop Chat:

(Photo: A. gray leaf spot, B. Physoderma brown spot, C. northern corn leaf blight. Photo by Darcy Telenko)