Getting the Most Out of the 2021 Corn Crop

The corn crop is in the ground, coming up nicely in many parts of Indiana, and now comes the monitoring of the crop. One expert says start scouting for disease early to keep fields free of stress throughout the season.

“Really watch and listen what’s going on in other areas,” says Chad Threewits, an agronomy service representative with Syngenta. “A lot of these diseases either blow in or progress from other areas. I think it’s important to not wait until it’s too late, but really keep an eye on the crops that are in our fields and listen for other issues that may come into our neighborhood.”

He says R1 or tassel timing has been found to be a key application point to prevent yield loss.

“There are opportunities where we can go earlier a little bit in the season, and that works too, especially with products that now have longer residual, products like Trivapro fungicide or Miravis Neo fungicide. Both of those products work longer in the plant, more residual, so it really widens that window of disease control and helps us protect that plant season-long.”

Threewits tells HAT the benefits of a good fungicide like Trivapro go beyond disease control and include stress reduction for the corn plant, including stress of drought-like conditions.

“It can help improve water use efficiency in the plant, keeping that plant from shutting down completely when it gets dry,” he explained. “And that in turn will give us quicker canopy to closure and keep the bottom part of the plant shaded so it’s really helping reduce that transpiration. Then later in the season it prolongs that grain fill period. The longer we can keep the plant working without shutting down or dying down early because of disease or environmental stresses, that’s going to really benefit us.”

He adds whether it’s early or late applications, Trivapro is helping provide stronger stalks too, a major benefit come fall harvest.

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