Drought, Tar Spot and Existential Dread in Indiana

11/06/24 • 33 min

In Indiana, the entire state is marked by some kind of drought as farmers finish up this year's harvest. If rain doesn't come yet this fall, Indiana farmers are crossing fingers and toes for good snowfall. Lots of problems, but maybe not crops, can erupt when the ground is too dry.
Additionally, many farmers are in their first or second season battling the tar spot fungus. Which raises the question: when do you apply fungicide to combat this pesky new disease? The answer goes back to the weather and to moisture levels.
"Visually it's a really hard disease to scout for, but to some degree you can know it's present," says Indiana agronomist Ben Jacobs. "There is a planting date correlation this year that will match back up with the weather. You can kind of predict or get an idea of how heavy the pressure it going to be if you focus on when you planted and how much moisture you got."
If this is the first season dealing with tar spot, here's the best advice from the Indiana Agronomy podcast:
🌽 - Try not to plan on doing two fungicide applications.
🌽 - Plan to try and apply fungicide earlier, not at the silkening stage but at the blister stage when the kernels are clear or just starting to turn yellow.
🌽 - Push a couple week past when you're used to applying, but not too late.

Learn more about tar spot:
https://www.pioneer.com/us/agronomy/Tar-Spot-of-Corn.html
Pioneer tar spot tolerant hybrid seed:
https://www.pioneer.com/us/products/corn/tar-spot.html

Learn more about tar spot:
https://www.pioneer.com/us/agronomy/Tar-Spot-of-Corn.html
Pioneer tar spot tolerant hybrid seed:
https://www.pioneer.com/us/products/corn/tar-spot.html

Previous Episode

To Soil Sample Or Not To Soil Sample?

As you start to pivot from 2024 harvest to 2025 planting, it's time to start thinking about soil fertility. During this episode of the Pioneer Agronomy podcast, to soil test or not to soil test in drought conditions?
"I wouldn't delay it. There's the option, but if you're usually sampling after Harvest, do it then. Understand that those results might be skewed a little bit. You could make an argument to wait for more moisture in the ground. But if it's my ground and I have the time to get across the field, I'm going to do it in that weather window. I'm in favor of getting it done," says Pioneer Agronomist Ben Jacob.
It's harder to take soil samples when the ground is dry, and some of the numbers could be skewed slightly due to the lack of moisture. If you're going to sample now, podcast host and agronomist Brian Shrader reminds us that soil samples need to be taken at the same depth, even if it's hard to drive the probe to full depth.
Find more resources on nutrient management in the soil from Pioneer here: https://www.pioneer.com/us/agronomy-science/topic.nutrientManagement.html

Next Episode

Measuring Yield Results

Hosts Brian Shrader and Ben Jacob talk about the 2024 harvest during this episode of the Pioneer Indiana podcast offering some advice for determining whether products used during the 2024 growing season made a difference.

Their most important takeaways:

It's important to understand how most yield monitors work. Most are just a mass flow sensor, and what they are actually measuring is an impact against a plate. So, a denser sample if going to have more of an impact at the same weight. They are an excellent tool when used properly, but it's still best to have scales on your grain cart.
If you're testing new agronomic products - go perpendicular to the rows.
One year of data is pretty challenging to make a decision from. Try to use at least a three-year data set from 30 locations or more.
As salespeople are knocking on your door for products to use in 2025, if they can't talk to you about the data, don't buy.