Patrick Horwart

Wet weather concerns moving forward. Lots of contacts in regards to the wet weather & some molds starting to show up on grain in corn & soybeans. I have started to see some show up, however not at high levels at this point. A few comments. 1) Sooner you can get the grain out of the field the better. Dried down & out of the elements prevents increased levels. 2) Drying corn down to 13% if you are going to be keeping it in storage will greatly reduce chances of grain quality reductions once in the bin. Higher plenum temp during drying can help as well. 3) Diseased kernels are often light, so increased fan speed on the combine can aid in keeping them out of grain tank. Need to balance this if some plants had premature death (PMD) from crown rot & trying to keep those kernels. 4) Frequent monitoring of grain during storage. 5) Just because there is mold doesn't mean there are toxins. A great article below! Ear pic is from legendary NE IA Agronomist Aaron Prestemon! cropprotectionnetwork.org/pu…

Why is scouting for and making fungicide decisions so challenging in corn?? IMHO two reasons.. 1) Nobody knows what the weather will do in the next 60 days. 2) Latent period of disease. From pollination to black layer is about 60 days in NE IA. Most forecast accuracy is poor after 5 days, must less long term forecasts, so knowing if weather will favor disease is unknown. The time from when disease infects the leaf until you visually see the lesion is known as the latent period. Often 14 days, which means you could be scouting a field that has received several spore showers and a large infection building, and not see it. Come back 7 days later to see things taking off. More time to get an application lined up and made... etc. Private and university models are improving in their accuracy to follow weather that has occurred and make risk predictions for specific diseases. Use these models and your genetic ratings to guide you in your decision making. Nobody knows what fungicide response will be in 2026, new tools aid in probability of making a profitable decision. Visit with your local Pioneer Sales Rep on the Corteva Disease Tracker & your genetic package!!