Tassels are emerging and we’re entering peak water usage. Approximately .33-.37” per day. Dryland corners are starting to show some stress in the afternoons and will get worse as we roll into this weekend. Overnight lows have treated us well and ideally stay below 70 to let the plant rest and drought tolerance take full effect. Current forecast shows mid to upper 90’s Fri-Mon before a break in the 10 day next week. Western Bean Cutworm counts at the plot were 135 this week. That’s moderate pressure and should see peak numbers in the next 7-10 days.
In Granular they’ve added some new features to watch field by field. Taking As planted data, it calculates GDU’s and in the late April planting showing currently around 1,400-1,580 GDU’s. Popular Hybrid P13777 has a silking GDU of 1,427. Another added feature is the Fungicide timing application and still has most fields in SW Boone county marked as monitoring, no spray needed in the next 14 days.
Visually the leaf’s look much cleaner this year with no Southern Rust, no Common Rust, and limited Bacterial Leaf Streak. Tar Spot is and will continue to be our greatest concern. I’ve found it in almost every field so far but it is very early, and very limited. it’s not showing on every leaf, not showing on every plant. Worst plants have 4-5 specs with most cases 1-2 as of this week. We’ll continue to monitor how the Tar Spot progresses as we hit Brown silk.
Below are some pictures of Tar Spot around Cedar, NEXTA Fungicide add on, Corteva’s Corn Disease Tracker for the US, and lastly scouting snapshots
I’ll snap out a more in depth look at some of our Nexta Biological side x sides in the coming days.
For fungicide timing, one of our best from last year was applying Swole + Spark at Brown Silk. Net was 5 bu increase on P14930AML last year. It helps the plant move sugar into the Kernal and we’ll be putting out some more trials this year.
If interested in trying some applications please reach out.
