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Near record precipitation likely to bring along disease

Michigan’s wheat crop is starting the growing season much better than in 2022.

Trevor Kraus, Technical Service Representative, with BASF tells Brownfield condition is ahead of last year.

“Which I think kind of surprised me because I think we’ve had the second most amount of rainfall in March in history in Michigan,” he says.

He says as the crop is greening up, the added moisture is also ideal for more leaf diseases.

“The denser that wheat stand is, the more conducive it is to disease, and if you layer on additional moisture, that’s really going to drive things like Septoria starting earlier in the season,” he explains.

Kraus expects demand will be high for applicators in-season with a 46 percent increase in wheat acres in the state, making BASF’s new head scab fungicide ideal for compressed spray schedules.