Now that some areas are past the drought stage, some are too wet, and there are going to be more issues in the future from the flooding that sure to occur from Tropical Storm Debby. Logan Dinkla is an agronomic service representative with Syngenta. He tells SFN farmers will face higher pressure from diseases.

“Whether it’s, you know, bringing in moisture or bringing in humidity. And now the temperatures to go with it can be favorable for different diseases, whether they’re foliar or no sort of stock rots and stuff. You know, you think of fields I’ve been in, it’s, it’s not just one disease. There’s four or five at times in some fields as well as, you know, outside of disease, there’s weed pressure issues. You know, whether weed seed is brought in through moisture, or, you know, in spots where the crop is variable. And, you know, either we lost corn stand or it’s opened up. You know, weeds like waterhemp or grasses are able to thrive and cause issues going forward, into the future, with the weed seed bank.”

When it comes to managing disease, Dinkla says the best plan of attack is to have a plan at the beginning of the crop year.

“From a disease perspective, it’s, you know, using a fungicide like Miravis Neo or TrivaPro, something that’s going to be broad spectrum, and how a lot of plant health benefits go along with, you know, especially in some of these wetter areas, standability is potentially going to be a big thing where, you know, maybe we’re a nutrient deficient or other factors or stress in these plants, if we can offset stress through, you know, Syngenta, some of our Syngenta fungicides that can be have a lot of benefits to it.”

It’s a similar case with the weeds as well. The best management practice is to keep them from emerging in the first place.

“Whether it’s, you know, the corn acre we look at, you know, I talk a lot about storing or the different Acuron brands, and really not even never letting weeds come up is kind of our goal, you know, on the soybean side, to be, you know, using a product like Tendovo, and making sure to come back timely and, you know, with an overlapping residual, and never, never let the weeds really get ahead of us, where we’re having to, you know, kill emerged weeds.”

While we can’t control the weather, Dinkla says farmers can offset the risk of damage by encouraging healthier crops.

“A healthier plan is going to be able to handle those stresses, you know. So like the idea of fungicide, you know, we keep that plant healthy. It’s, it’s not having to battle different diseases, or, you know, stock rots, or it’s going to be able to handle, handle environmental issues, better, increase standability. And, you know, some of the, some of the ways that we can, you know, help offset that risk.”

Dinkla says it’s more important than ever for farmers to scout for issues in their fields.