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Stalk integrity coming into focus

There’s a heightened awareness on stalk integrity as corn nears maturity.

Mark Storr with BASF says windy conditions are inevitable when summer transitions to fall.

“As a general rule, it’s going to blow (in the fall) and we don’t want to see the corn pop over then or break down because it has a poor stalk rind. So we do run into that.”

Storr covers central Iowa and tells Brownfield there’s been a significant amount of disease pressure this year.

“The usual suspects are here, gray leaf spot (and) northern corn leaf blight in particular. About the only thing I haven’t seen much of is normal rust, which is normally very prevalent in Iowa.”

Storr says a foliar disease that was not common in the state until recently is tar spot, which is “leading the way in eastern Iowa.”

Brownfield interviewed Storr Wednesday at the Farm Progress Show near Boone, Iowa.