Gray leaf spot, northern corn leaf blight, southern rust and Japanese beetles … these are just some of the reports coming in from Midwest fields to Arysta LifeScience. We had the opportunity this week at Ag Media Summit in Snowbird, Utah to get the latest downlow from Lynn Justesen, Arysta LifeScience Technical Sales Specialist for Fungicides in the Midwest
“There’s a fair amount of disease coming into the corn right now. We are seeing gray leaf spot, northern corn leaf blight, there’s southern rust nearly up to the Minnesota border,” Justesen said. “As we are thinking about corn acres and thinking about some of those VT and VT and beyond applications — we are spot on that — and products like Zolera, that we launched a year ago, we are having a lot of great success and our data is showing we are averaging seven bushel better than leading competition in VT applications in corn”
Bean wise, Justesen said Japanese beetles are pretty heavy and when growers are out doing some of those sprays, it is also about the right time to consider an application such as Zolera.
His number one tip for scouting — get out of the pickup truck.
“You gotta be out and I know this isn’t the best time of the year with some of our temperatures and humidity,” Justesen said. “Not the greatest time of the year to be out in the fields, but the nice part of being out in those fields is one you can go out and see it for yourself. If you’re doing it yourself, we are trying to protect in corn in particular the two leaves above and the two leaves below the ear leaf. As long as we protect those two leaves and we don’t have disease approaching that, we are probably ok.”
Justesen said field exploration is key to identifying what the diseases are, where they are at, and the severity level.
“As far as soybeans — same story — get out in the fields,” Justesen said. “Don’t just walk. You gotta get down in the canopy, start looking in the canopy, start looking at leaves, seeing where it is at on the plant, what’s the stage of the crop, and that will help you make some very good economic decisions moving forward.
If growers need more assistance scouting, Justesen advises contacting their local Arysta rep, retailer, extension services, or check out ArystaLifeScience.com.
