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It’s not too early for farmers to think about tar spot

Tar spot had less of an impact across the Corn Belt in 2022, but AgriGold National Agronomy Manager Whitney Monin says farmers should be prepared for the disease this year.

“Tar spot wasn’t as bad as it could have been, however we are making decisions for the future of what this disease can become,” she says. “…we know we can’t just make decisions for the future of our operations based on what happened in 2022. If we index on just one year, then ultimately, we’re going to be losing yield on the backside.”

She tells Brownfield the industry has learned a lot about tar spot since 2015, when it was found for the first time in the U.S. in Indiana and Illinois.  

“We did not think that tar spot could overwinter, and boy were we wrong. Look where we sit today, and the eye of the tar spot hurricane has advanced all the way to Pennsylvania and Nebraska and Georgia,” she says. “We know this disease is spreading, we know it’s impacting crop yields, but we also know that in order to manage you have to take a systems approach on your farm and your operation.”

Monin encourages growers to consider tolerant hybrids and strategies for rotation and fungicide and residue management.

“With the visceral nature of this disease, how it spreads so quickly, and what it can steal from us in terms of photosynthetic area and tissue of the canopy, we know we have to be diligent in how we’re approaching this disease and fighting it in the field,” she says.

She says it’s also important to understand the expectations of hybrids and tolerance in the field.

“AgriGold publishes our tar spot ratings in our seed guides to give farmers an indicator of what they can expect in terms of natural tar spot tolerance. I would encourage farmers to look deeper at the materials from seed providers. Seek out those professionals, those people you trust who are your seed partners every single year in the field and have that conversation. It might be a hard conversation and it might be a favorite hybrid that has poor tolerance. Maybe that means it’s still a fit on your operation and must be married with some of these other systems or management approaches for it to continue to be a viable solution on your acres in the future.”

Brownfield interviewed Monin during the inaugural Tar Spot Summit by AgReliant Genetics.