The Agronomy Advisor 6/21/18
Fungicide Timing and Application
With the recent rains and a dip in temperatures, conditions are right for the development of disease. Keep an eye out for the beginnings of gray leaf spot coming in on lower leaves. With forecasted rains, we will likely see disease push up farther in the canopy. Decisions will need to be made in the next couple weeks about fungicide application and timing, so keep an eye on your fields. Contact the Pederson Seed Team with questions on disease pressure, economic threshold and historical results from fungicide applications.
In-Season Nitrogen Blog Post
The second part of our three part blog series on in-season nitrogen is posted! In this segment we feature guest blogger Laura Thompson, an extension educator with the University of Nebraska. Some of her research focuses on in-season nitrogen application using sensor based platforms, both on high clearance applicators and drone based systems. Both of these methods aim to determine crop need for nitrogen in-season and match application timing to crop demand. The goal is to increase nitrogen use efficiency by cutting down on lost nitrogen from leaching, denitrification, or volatilization and giving producers the chance for responsive management to nitrogen losses or changes in yield potential. Check out what she has to say about the technology here!
Growing Degree Days
According to accumulated Growing Degree Days, we are about 10 days ahead of normal accumulated levels. Assuming a planting date of April 15, as of June 19th, we have accumulated 1245 GDD versus a normal of 976 GDD on June 19th. That puts us 269 GDD ahead of normal. Assuming 25 GDD per day, we are about 10.8 days ahead of average our GDD for this time of year. We are seeing that show up in plant maturity, with days to tassel and silking about a week and a half ahead of when we normally see it. Assuming this weather trend continues, we should see black layer around August 18th verses the 29th.