According to Bob Nielsen, Purdue extension agronomist one of the few good things about a drought is that the weather conditions are not very favorable for many of the leaf diseases that affect the corn crop.
Because of the dry weather conditions, he says farmers currently aren’t seeing a lot of leaf diseases. Nielsen tells Brownfield that doesn’t mean farmers are in the clear.
“If the drought worsens,” he says, “we might start worrying about insect pests like spider mites and down the road if it continues to worsen – we will need to worry about diseases like aspergillus ear rot.” Nielsen notes it tends to be a disease that affects corn during grain fill.”
He says it is imperative for farmers to continue scouting their fields to stay on top of any problems as they may arise.
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