From the Fields: Building a healthier plant

GROVELAND, Ill. — Brad Zimmerman wrapped up a busy season of applying fungicides and foliar feeding via drone and has entered the meeting season.

“We’ve been busy putting on fungicides and foliar passes. It kind of surprised me this year with crop budgets being so tight. We did quite a bit of foliar feeding, along with the fungicide, and testing the theory that if we build a healthier plant and keep it healthy, that it stays disease-free longer and is able to handle stresses a little bit better,” Zimmerman said.

“We had the drone up doing fungicide passes. I think we ended up doing between 4,000 and 5,000 acres of corn and soybean fungicide passes in the last month.

“I’ve always said it’s a great thing for the farmers if they can take the plunge and get their own drone to be able to control the timing that you put it on, whether it’s time of day or just being responsive to the time that you need it to be done.”

Picky Aphids

He’s noted some unusual aphid observations in corn.

“We saw a lot of aphid pressure this year in certain hybrids to the row. It was pretty interesting to see how aphids choose what plants they want to live on and impact,” he said.

“But when you have something like that, you obviously want to take care of it quickly, and so having your own drone or having somebody with a drone available is super helpful.”

One would wonder what characteristic one hybrid would have to draw aphids, while an adjacent different hybrid would not be infested.

“That’s a question that I’ve asked a lot of people and I don’t know that we have a solid single answer,” Zimmerman said.

“I think it’s a combination of several things. It seems to be the newer genetics, the more higher performing, high-yielding genetics tend to get it a little bit more often than than some of the others. I don’t know if it has to do with them being so high in Brix or high sugar content that those aphids like, that they gravitate towards.

“I’m by no means an entomologist, but what I’ve heard is that they choose the plants by different chemical and electrical impulses that I don’t understand. So, for whatever reason, whether it’s a combination of all those, they know which ones to choose and which ones not to.”

Wheat Yield Contest

AgriNews last met Zimmerman on July 2 at Wendell Good’s wheat yield contest field in Tazewell County when it was ready for harvest.

Good’s field averaged 145.1 bushels per acre to win the Illinois Wheat Association’s annual yield contest, earning repeat champion honors after hitting a high of 147.73 the previous year.

Zimmerman provides Good with agronomic recommendations.

“Wendell had a really great year with growing the contest field wheat. We watched it all year. It looked really good. There were multiple passes over it and he really cared for it in a great way,” Zimmerman said.

“It came out out nice at harvest. Obviously, you always have issues with something, and I think it was the bean head that was giving us some troubles, but the guys worked on it and got it back going pretty quickly and knocked it out.”

Crop Conditions

As of Aug. 12, the crops look “really good around here for the most part,” Zimmerman said.

“We had a stretch in there where it started to get dry, cracks in the ground were opening up and corn was starting to get a little bit stressed and the beans kind of slowed up. It’s started to cool down and we’ve gotten a few rains, and so I think we’ll be able to finish this crop out in good fashion.”

Soybean Director

Zimmerman picked up another duty in late July when he was elected District 5 representative on the Illinois Soybean Association board. His district includes Fulton, Knox, Marshall, Peoria, Putnam and Tazewell counties.

“I’m really excited about that and what we can learn there,” he said.

It’s also meeting time that includes numerous educational opportunities.

“Guys are starting to feel caught up in the fields and so it’s time to learn about what’s new for next year and put a plan together for next year,” Zimmerman said.

Evaluating Stalks

He is also using this time of year to take a closer look at what’s happening to the plants in terms of structure.

One method is digging out a corn plant by the roots and splitting the lower stalks down the middle all the way to the root ball to get an idea of what’s happening inside the stalk.

Zimmerman compares the stalk to a straw or an artery.

“You want it to be as clear as possible to let nutrients not only go up, but also go down into the root zone and feed your biology and, therefore, they know what kind of nutrients to bring to you. It’s the signaling mechanism,” he said.

Zimmerman dug out a cornstalk to analyze it.

“In this stalk, we’ve got the crown portion of it. So, the lower portion kind of looks like a pencil. It has some browning in it, and if you touch it, it’s hard. It has a woody feel to it,” he said.

“Basically that tells me that your stalk tissues are no longer viable. They’re hard, they’re crusted off, kind of like cholesterol in your artery. So, it’s got to find another way to get nutrients into the plant.

“So, we see these brace roots start coming out from the next node up. And then again, as this one turns brown, you start seeing that woody pith move up to the next node.

“When you see brace roots coming out of the bottom of the stalk on top of the ground, it’s not necessarily a good thing. It’s potentially a bad thing because your stalk is getting plugged up and your corn plant is looking for a different way to grab nutrients, and it starts putting out those extra brace roots.

“We want to keep this as clean as possible. A lot of times you attribute that to crown rot. A lot of times, excessive nitrates and nitrogen can cause this woody pith, and there’s a couple of other the things that will contribute to that, as well.”