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Don’t be too quick to eliminate a fungicide pass

A Helena Product Specialist says corn farmers shouldn’t be too quick to eliminate a fungicide pass this season.

Brad Hammes based in Iowa tells Brownfield growers aren’t seeing many disease threats yet because of low humidity early in the season.

“If you’re not as high on your ability to be profitable this year as a grower, that would certainly be an opportunity to maybe not make a second pass of a fungicide.” But while there hasn’t been a lot of disease risk yet, he says the long-term forecast indicates that could change. 

“As we continue to have a cooler and wetter forecast through July and August, we may find ourselves in a really good environmental condition for tar spot development late in our crop season.”

He recommends using the University of Wisconsin’s Tarspotter app to see the risk for tar spot in your area and help determine if a second fungicide pass is beneficial to protect against late season tar spot.