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Growers should reflect on 2019 growing season to plan for 2020

Many growers faced increased insect and crop disease pressure during the 2019 growing season.

Brandon Schrage is a technical service manager with FMC.

“We’re seeing different emergence patterns with a lot of different insects, a lot of folks had some issues with different weed pressures, and we got new diseases that are developing like tar spot in corn,” he says. “So, having a year like 2019- where you have a lot of different complexes- we really need to be aggressively pursuing alternative tactics for 2020.”

He tells Brownfield excessive moisture and a record number of prevented plant acres made it an interesting season for growers.

He says farmers should prepare for the 2020 growing season by…

“Staying hopeful that’s always the key when we have lower commodity prices or a little bit of uncertainty in the market,” he says. “So, I would say stay optimistic but always be mindful of what we had in 2019. For example, did we have a lot of residue in the soil and are we going to have to mange our diseases a little more closely.”

Schrage spoke to Brownfield at the 2019 NAFB Convention in Kansas City.

Audio: Brandon Schrage, FMC