Special Report

Battling corn diseases

A crop protection specialist says growers should use the past two years’ yield losses from northern corn leaf blight as a learning tool when they plan for next year.

Bond McGinnis with DuPont Crop Protection says conditions were right for the disease again this year.  “We had pressure from last year – and the organisms survived in the soil,” he says.  “Then we had this weather that was very conducive – a lot of wet weather, leaf moisture, and moderate temperatures – growers got those early infections and then it moved rapidly up the plant because of its history or maybe you had a hybrid that was more susceptible.”

While it’s too late for this year – he tells Brownfield growers can start thinking about 2016.  “Our recommendation to stop this is to go scout your field,” he says.  “If you see some lesions on those lower leaves, make a timely application from that VT to R1 stage.”

McGinnis says if northern corn leaf blight isn’t controlled, it can cause a significant reductions in yield.