USDA has their new US corn and soybean crop estimates, and Indiana farmers are ready to dig in and get their own yields, but one agronomist believes through all of the ups and downs this year, crops look very good.
Randy Niver is a technical agronomist with DEKALB/Asgrow, and he isn’t just optimistic about corn yield potential.
“Especially the earlier planted beans looks fantastic for this year,” he said. “Even double crop that we never get really good stand establishment looks really good this year because we had timely rains after that double crop planting, and those beans come right up. They look really good too, so even the later planted soybeans have some really good yield potential this year.”
Niver says farmers have a done a good job helping the crop along with their disease management program this summer.
“We’ve had an excellent opportunity for disease and especially as you get into the northern part of Illinois and Indiana, tar spot has been something that’s been coming out in corn,” he told HAT. “Spraying fungicide VT, R1 at the bare minimum has been key to controlling that pest. That disease is something that comes on early, so if we spray at that R2 to R3 time frame, brown silk, it’s too late. We’ve got to control it early. I’ve even seen situations on a high yield type of situation where we’ve been spraying fungicide with our with our post pass of herbicides at that V5 time frame, those are spotless. They look perfect.”
So, the fungicide approach is worth a look when evaluating what you can do differently next year.
“Considering a little bit earlier fungicide or adding a fungicide pass into your program is something that I think it’s gotta come to be able to control some of these diseases. And even in a year where we don’t see a heavy pressure, just the ethylene production that the plant goes through, the strobilurin in the fungicides can help protect the plant and slow down that ethylene production.”
For more, visit the whole section dedicated to agronomy at DEKALBAsgrow.com.