Spraying protects corn, soybeans from pests, diseases

ASHTON, Ill. — William Henert spends a significant amount of his time during this period of the growing season spraying crop protection products on the corn, soybean and seed corn crops on the northern Illinois farm.

“Crop development looks perfect, but I don’t want to say that too loud,” said William Henert, who farms together with his wife, Lea, and his parents, Nolan and Linda Henert.

“Yesterday, the rainfall was sporadic, but I think all our fields got at least one-tenth to one inch of rain,” he said on July 7. “It was a perfect rain in some spots and just enough in others.”

The timing of that rain was important for Henert’s crops.

“On Saturday, I was spraying, and by noon, the seed corn was really rolling up tight, so it was happy to get some rain,” he said.

Henert does not have irrigation on his farm.

“The guys with irrigators are working hard this year,” he said. “I think there’s only one irrigator in Bradford Township.”

The first fields Henert planted are starting to tassel.

“Our first planting is probably 10% tasseled,” he said. “We always hold our breath for the next 30 to 60 days on windstorms.”

“The soybeans are almost at R2 and we will probably spray fungicide on those anytime and it looks like the bugs are getting at them pretty good, so we try to pair the fungicide and insecticide applications together if it works out,” he said.

Henert was going to wait 10 to 14 days to spray the soybeans.

“But it looks like I should get after the Japanese beetles since they are good at defoliating,” he said. “Everybody has a different opinion on fungicides and we haven’t found the perfect answer.”

“We always spray a fungicide, but the biggest conversation we have is the timing and which fungicide to use for what we’re seeing in the field,” Lea Henert said.

So far, the Henerts have not seen any evidence of tar spot in their cornfields.

“My sister works in Ogle and Carroll counties and she has seen some tar spot,” Lea said. “And my brother-in-law who is a crop specialist has seen some by Holcomb.”

With their Hagie sprayer, the Henerts have the ability to spray products at the appropriate time.

“We are able to make adjustments and be very specific to what each field needs,” Lea said.

The Henerts switched from a pull-type sprayer to a self-propelled machine in the early 2000s.

“We bought this Hagie sprayer in 2023 and it was a tough decision because it was the first new sprayer we ever bought,” William said. “It has ExactApply and it was a big cost, but now that we have it, we wouldn’t go back.”

The roguing crews were working in the seed cornfields to remove the inferior plants.

“Wyffels takes care of that and they want all the roguing done before pollination to keep the seed pure,” Lea said.

“The seed corn is about 10 days to two weeks away from pollination, so I’m spraying fungicide on the seed corn now,” William said. “The seed corn will be sprayed with insecticide after pollination and when the crews are finished with detasseling.”

In addition to their cash crops, the sweet corn on the Henert farm also looks like it will produce a great crop this year.

“One of our neighbors always grew a patch of sweet corn that he gave away, so I offered to grow an acre for him,” William said. “And every seed grew, so we’re going to have a lot of sweet corn.”

“We will be sharing the sweet corn with the community to make sure everybody has some this summer,” Lea added.

“The sweet corn looks perfect,” William said. “And there’s the old wives’ tale that if the sweet corn is good, the commercial corn will be good, too.”

Two Southdown ewe lambs have been added to the Henert farm that will be 4-H projects for their sons, Wilson and Roy.

“Wilson is in Cloverbuds this year and he has one more year and then he’ll be able to join 4-H and show sheep,” Lea said.

“I had Southdown sheep growing up and it started just like this with two ewes,” William said. “I raised sheep for about seven years and the barn was full, maybe 10 or 12 ewes.”

This year, Wilson will take his Cloverbud project to the Lee County Fair.

“The Cloverbuds did an art project and they will present it as a group on the Saturday of the fair,” Lea said.

“We also try to make sure we get some family time this summer and that’s a hard thing to do with the seed corn and doing all the spraying ourselves,” she said. “That doesn’t give us much time to get away so we try to take every moment that we can to enjoy summer as a family.”

The boys do many things with their parents like riding in the sprayer and checking fields each night during golf cart rides.

“Harvest is a fun time, but Wilson is back to school at that time,” Lea said. “So, we try to have the boys with us a lot, so they hopefully grow to love farming as much as we do.”