Fungicide Considerations for 2022 for best ROI: NAFB interview with Atticus Business Unit Lead, Aaron Burke

Transcript:

NAFB: With high corn and soybean prices and cold, unfavorable growing conditions so far in 2022, it’s important for farmers to invest in fungicides to maximize yields. Despite high input costs, farmers should still consider fungicides to protect overall plant health and support yield potential.

Aaron Burke, Business Unit Lead, North, with Atticus, offers his thoughts on the bump in fungicide demand and the opportunities fungicides offer corn and soybean farmers this year…

Aaron Burke: The high prices that we’re experiencing with soybeans and corn has just made the ROI calculation for growers really easy to put a fungicide on and get incremental margin and benefit from it. So, when you combine the yield bump that you can have with fungicides, regardless of disease, a lot of the strabillium family has the ability to add six to 12 bushels, whether there’s disease present or not. Growers are looking at the economics and really just determining how many times they’re going to treat versus if they’re going to treat.

NAFB: He says the number one consideration in fungicide selection is field history and the historical challenge each individual farm has had…

AB: The other thing to consider this year again, because of the economics, is the number of applications. Historically, growers in corn have maybe balanced a choice between a V5 application and a VT application. Many of them this year are probably going to be looking at both. Growers need to be considering the timing of that application and communicating with their retailer. And the sooner that they do that, the better they can guarantee that they’re going to have the timing and products that they need. Last thing to consider is all the options that are available for fungicides. Atticus has over 25 broadacre fungicides with both single active ingredients and mixtures. So, when you look at all the alternatives that are out there, it’s a great time to consider Atticus products and post-patent alternatives that can offer even greater savings.

NAFB: Burke explains what pathogens farmers should be watching for this year…

AB: Yeah, tar spot is probably the most emotional one in corn just because it’s newer, it’s been pretty significant in infection and yield loss. But the other ones in corn that are always kind of there, anthracnose, northern corn leaf blight, the rusts, and then the other one that kind of popped up last year similar to tar spot was crown rot. In soybeans, you have seedling diseases like pythium and fusarium. You also have Phytophthora root rot and white mold. 2021 was a relatively dry year, so it would have been less white mold infection than normal. But if we trend back to any normal levels or have higher levels of moisture, we’re probably going to see more white mold. And then, the other one that kind of popped up in soybeans last year was cercospora leaf blot, and growers should just be on the lookout for that.”

NAFB: He adds it’s important to stay in close contact with your retailer and offers other tips as farmers go through the season…

AB: Continue scouting. Again, they can do this through their retailer or on their own, keeping their eye open for infection, lesions. And then as you continue through the season, obviously you make the investment in the fungicide, you’re going to experience the yield enhancement that they offer and the disease protection. The last thing is the evaluation when you get into harvest looking at the different fields, level of infection, how the fungicides performed, additional yield that you might have experienced just because of the fungicide application. And then documenting and tracking all that data so that as you move forward into 2023, we just have a greater dataset to make more informed decisions about where and when and how to use fungicide on your farm.