We are in the heart of fungicide application season, with airplanes, drones, and sprayers crawling the countryside.
Key things to think about when making fungicide applications:
- Disease pressure
- Stress mitigation
- Type of product
- Application method
- Rate of product and carrier rate
- Cost of product and services
- Yield impact
A question we always get is: How do we know if it pays?
The tool shown here is a scenario run on corn and soybean acres in Illinois, but can be modified for any crop or application type.
If you’re interested in running your own numbers and yield assumptions through the tool, email shay@agviewsolutions.com with the email title “Fungicide 2022” and we will send you the spreadsheet.
Some areas are experiencing drought and dry conditions with a burnt up crop, while others have good moisture but generally have not been seeing as much from disease pressure just yet.
Tar spot is the big question mark for many operations this year, with some areas in 2020 and 2021 seeing significant yield loss in areas without plant health and protection products administered in July or August.
Are you a fungicide skeptic? This year might make you a believer. If nothing else, we encourage folks to continue to run on-farm trials or comparisons to make sure they have the best information available for their farm.
The most notable item in my mind is the cost/bushel. I don’t know about anyone else, but I’ve messed my marketing up more in the last week than $1.60 and $0.50 per bushel!
Have a great day, and good luck with your fungicide applications or decisions
Shay Foulk is a farm business consultant with Ag View Solutions, providing profit management and business analysis. He farms and runs a regional seed business with his wife and father-in-law in Illinois.
Connect with him:
shay@agviewsolutions.com
@FoulkShay
agviewsolutions.com
