Fungicides to be sprayed to protect crops from disease

TOULON, Ill. — Spraying for weeds in corn and soybean fields has been completed on Cliff Lane’s farm and the next task will be spraying the crops with fungicide.

“Disease pressure now compared to a year ago is substantially less,” said Cliff Lane, who is married to Tammy and farms in Stark County in north-central Illinois. “But there is some disease starting to show up and with the weather conditions it will get worse.”

Lane is focused on controlling gray leaf spot and rust.

“There is a little bit of gray leaf spot and tar spot has been found in the area,” Lane said. “I don’t get too excited about tar spot because it is not really going to take off until later in the summer.”

“I want to control gray leaf and rust now, because if you keep those two in check, the tar spot will not cause near the yield hit,” he said.

Some rust spores have been captured in traps.

“I have not seen rust, but it is probably inevitable that we will have it, which is different because we had it pretty bad last year and it is not normal to have rust two years, back to back,” Lane said. “But with the weather conditions, it has pushed up from the gulf.”

Fungicide is typically sprayed with a helicopter on Lane’s farm.

“There is a lot of timber and fields that are not square, so I think the helicopter does a better job on the edges,” he said.

In previous years, Lane would scout for disease before making the decision to spray fungicides, but now he prepays for the application.

“It is not just looking at the disease pressure that is out there, but the forecast of what is coming,” he said. “If it is humid, that really causes the gray leaf and rust to accelerate, and with the onset of tar spot, it becomes even more crucial.”

In years when the excessive disease pressure is not present, Lane said, when it is really hot and dry, the fungicide application can provide some stress mitigation.

“When I do a fungicide application, I put a foliar feed in to help cover the cost of that trip,” he said.

Lane started to put corn rootworm traps out on July 7.

“The fireflies are out, so you know the rootworm beetles are hatching,” he said. “On our farm, I generally put the rootworm traps in the bean fields because they are going to the cornfields.”

The pheromone trap attracts the rootworm beetles and then they get stuck in it.

“This trap will be out here for one week and then I will replace it and generally I do that for four to five weeks until about mid-August,” Lane said. “I will count the rootworm beetles and it will have other insects, too, like flies, gnats and Japanese beetles.”

A trap will be placed in several of Lane’s fields.

“I try to put them where they are easily accessible so I can check them every week,” he said. “In my corn-bean rotation, I have not had corn rootworms at threshold for years, but as you move further northwest in Illinois that changes where there are more corn-on-corn acres.”

Lane has seen some Japanese beetles.

“The concern in corn is when they are eating the silks,” he said. “But Japanese beetles are social enough that they might be in a corner of a field today and they might be over in a neighbor’s field tomorrow, so they travel.”

The Japanese beetles can defoliate soybean plants.

“It takes a lot of defoliation to justify spraying them and I do not think the pressure has been near as high this year,” Lane said. “They have been here, but not as bad as they have been in the past.”

Some of his earlier-planted beans started flowering the week before summer solstice.

“Soybeans are light sensitive and it’s the nighttime length,” Lane said.

“So, if you get the beans planted earlier and they are big enough, you can gain seven to 10 days in the flowering, which will give us more nodes and pods,” he said. “That’s why we’re seeing the benefits of yield with earlier-planted soybeans.”

During the week of July 13, Lane traveled to Washington, D.C., as a board member of the Illinois Corn Growers Association to attend the National Corn Growers Association’s Corn Congress.

“We did hill visits while we were there and all things ethanol is a huge focus for us,” he said. “Another important topic is the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement.”

In August, Cornelius Seed will hold a kickoff meeting.

“The exciting news is the Cornelius family has made the official transition to the next generation,” said Lane, who is a regional sales manager for the company that was established in 1935.

“Chuck and Chris have transitioned the majority ownership to Will, James and Janie Cornelius,” he said. “That is the fifth generation and for a company to go through that many generations within a family is amazing.”

The kickoff meeting will feature award presentations for last year and an update on sales programs.

“We will go through the new products that we are bringing into the portfolio and talk about our plots,” Lane said.

In addition to selling corn hybrids, soybean varieties and forage seeds, the company also offers PivotBio.

“We now have Meristem products, which have been a good addition to broadening the portfolio,” Lane said.