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Corn disease pressure rising, some increasing scope

Summer weather is fueling disease pressure in many midwestern fields.

Chris Souder, Midwest Agronomy Lead for DEKLAB/Asgrow tells Brownfield he is seeing plenty of the usual corn diseases like grey leaf spot and northern corn leaf blight.

“In northeast Missouri, southeast Iowa and west central Illinois. With the high levels of rain and high humidity in those areas it is the perfect environment for the development of those diseases.”

He says wind patterns have also helped southern rust spread further north.

“From southern Illinois up to the Mississippi River Valley and we will be keeping an eye on that as it reaches southern Iowa and central Missouri.”

And they are keeping a close eye on the development of tar spot.

“We’re already getting some reports from farmers in northern Illinois finding it in some fields. I think we have 8-10 counties in Michigan that have also reported the presence of tar spot. It is a very aggressive disease that is relatively new to the Midwest.”

Souder says they recommend vigilant crop scouting and proper fungicide applications as soon as a disease is detected.