News

Near perfect weather for pollination

The Illinois corn crop has had near perfect weather to go through pollination.   Mike Toohill, staff agronomist for Diversified Services says he couldn’t have special ordered better conditions.  “Warm sunny days and ample moisture create some of the best pollination days I’ve ever seen,” he says.  “Right now there’s a lot of pollen flying in the northern part of the state.  But again – conditions look awfully good.”

He tells Brownfield the cool, damp weather has added some disease pressure like Grey Leaf Spot and some stalk rot hast started to set in where pollination has occurred.

But unlike recent years, Toohill says there hasn’t been much fungicide being applied.  “Once new crop corn priced dropped to about $3.50 – I’m just not seeing the typical amount of airplanes spraying fungicides,” he says.  “I would assume if we had $5.50 corn it would be a war-zone out here.”

He says growers have to see if it works economically for their farms.  “What I’ve been telling growers, if fungicide costs $30 applied, it takes a 9 bushel response to break even,” he says.  “That’s probably not going to happen based on historical fungicide response.”

However, for growers who wait until later to harvest their corn, he says fungicide might be an option to consider.

AUDIO: Mike Toohill, Diversified Services (4:45mp3)