The Cropwalker - Volume 4 Issue 24
Always read and follow label directions.
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Crop Conditions
Weather We continue to be ahead of average as far as CHU’s, maybe 5-6 days. Many areas of western Ontario received a nice rain the last few days. Other areas very dry. Wheat – continues without issue. The rain put some wheat down in spots. One CCA in Niagara area commenting that she can see the benefits of the growth regulator. Cool weather and rain this past week really bodes well for wheat yields. Corn lots of knee high. There was some frost in Courtland area that froze maybe 2-3000 acres of corn. Much will be replanted. Interesting that vegetable crops in that area are okay Soybeans – earliest fields starting to flower. Several herbicides should not be sprayed when soybeans are flowering. Check labels. Manganese deficiency is suspect in several fields that did not receive rain. For areas that have not received rain, keep an eye out for Spider Mites. As the grasses in the ditches start to die off due to lack of rain, they will start to move into soybean fields. Seeing some slug feeding in fields even though it has been quite dry. Slugs still must eat. Spring grain most crops have headed or are starting to head. Reports of both cereal leaf beetle and thrips in sprain grain crops. Scout for these pests, and control as required. Forages. Second cut is looking good in areas that received rainfall and should start in a week. New seedings will be ready shortly after. If you are in an area without rainfall, and short of feed, talk to a neighbour with wheat in the rotation about planting a cover crop following harvest to plant Oats or similar crop for additional feed.
Just heard of a grower who sprayed 250 acres of soybeans with a broadleaf herbicide intended for other crops. He thought it was a surfactant that he wanted to add to his post emergent soybean herbicide. Goodbye 250 acres. It was used instead of a surfactant of a similar name. With all the generic products, be sure you read the label and the instructions.
Articles
Do not feel it is your responsibility or your problem to fix if it means going off label!
This time of year, I get calls from custom sprayer operators and retailers because suddenly someone found a bunch of weeds that should have been sprayed sooner. Typically, the grower wants a solution. Typically, there is no safe solution. Typically, it means you must go off label which can result in possible crop injury and probably poor weed control. In most of these cases there is no solution but to use a preharvest or post-harvest herbicide application. DO NOT FEEL IT IS YOUR FAULT.
Fungicides for Spring Grain in Head
Products that are safe include Caramba, Folicur, Proline, Prosaro, Propiconazole or Tilt. These are all triazoles. You should not spray the strobilurins (strobis) on cereals that are in head. Main disease you will want to control in Oats is Crown Rust. In Barley it could be a number. Could be spot blotch, net blotch, scald or Septoria.
Q I sprayed Integrity on my corn. Corn froze off and will plant soybeans. Do I need to worry about Integrity residue?
Ans You should be safe. Integrity is applied at 0.45 L/ac for corn. It is registered at 0.15L/ac on soybeans. Generally, products are registered at ½ of safe rate in case there is overlap. This means Integrity is probably safe in most cases at 0.3 L/ac on soybeans. Since there has been 5-6 weeks between applying Integrity for corn and planting soybeans it should be OK. I checked with Rob Miller BASF he said “you should be good. We did work on sensitive varieties, and they were okay 28 days after 4X rate.”
White mould in soybeans
Make a strategy for fields that are most likely to develop mould. In fact, go through all your fields and decide which fields are most apt to get mould. Here are the factors in order of importance.
1 Field history. Was there mould before?
2 Variety. Some varieties are relatively tolerant like S03 W4. Longer season varieties tend to be more prone to mould.
3 Tillage. No till has lower probability.
3) Planting date. Earlier planting dates more apt to have mould. Some will say other way around. From my experience when you plant early there appears to be enough dew to get the disease going. Also, may be a function of the spore production. Maybe by the time later plantings start to flower the apothecia that have produced the spores are done producing.
4) In my area if we have fog in late June/early to mid-July, it is a strong indication that we should be spraying for white mould.
5) If you have SWAT maps or similar consider variable rate spraying for mould. If you want to do variable rate for white mould (or with any crop protection product) you MUST follow the product label. If the product only has one rate, this means on-off scripts (20 gallons or zero). If it is a product like Acapela where you have a rate range, then you could do 20 gallons/ac for white mould at 0.35 L/ac, and a 13.7 gallon/ac rate for the 0.24 L/ac foliar leaf disease rate in non-white mould locations, maybe a zero for areas that do not get any response.
Products to control White Mould in Soybeans (v2)
BASF strategy
Risk Level - Low
Priaxor @ 120 mL/ac with timing @ R2.5
Risk Level - Moderate
Priaxor @ 120 mL/ac with timing @ R2. Followed by Cotegra (if required) @ 200 mL/ac 10 to 14 days later.
Risk Level - High
Cotegra @ 200 mL/ac with timing @ R2. Followed by Priaxor @ 180 mL/ac 10 to 14 days later.
Bayer strategy
For Soybeans, we recommend Stratego Pro at 230ml/acre R1-R5. If white mould is a concern 1st app no later than R1.5.
Also, we will be launching Delaro Complete for 2022. We will have some product in the market this year, expected to arrive 1st week of July. In high disease pressure situations, or in field with a known history of white mould, use new Delaro® Complete fungicide (237 mL/ac, 30ac/jug) which introduces a third mode of action to provide enhanced disease control.
Delaro Complete will be our lead product in soys going forward. Delaro Complete adds a group 7 (fluopyram) to enhance white mould activity, greening and plant health.
For dry beans, our product of choice is Propulse at 300ml/acre second app 7-14 days after.
Corteva strategy
We need to use Acapela as a preventative application at R1 (beginning bloom). Followed with 2nd application at 0.24-0.35L/ac 7–10 days later at R2 (full) bloom). Rate is 0.35 L/ac each time. Minimum of 10 gallons of water. NO SURFACTANT required.
Syngenta strategy
-be prepared to spray your soybeans at R1/R1.5 with our white mould specialist - Allegro at 178 ml/ac if conditions are conducive for infection. This will offer suppression of white mould.
-plan for a second pass with a different product labelled for white mould suppression about 10-14 days later if weather remains favourable for disease infection.
-apply products in no less than 20 gal/ac of water to achieve optimal coverage
What Volunteer Corn/Graminicides Products are Available?
Please note that if tank mixing with group 2 herbicides (i.e., Classic), or group 14’s (Reflex/Blazer), we did not account for any antagonism, or tank-mix-ability.
Which grass herbicide should I use in soybeans for Volunteer Corn?
Three main products on the market. Assure II, Statue and Venture L.
Assure II – labelled until the 6-leaf stage. Label states 0.15 L/ac, you may hear 0.1 L/ac from some in the industry. From experience, at the 0.1 L/ac rate you may see reduction in efficacy depending on plant stage/water volume (way too late at this point in the growing season). Ensure the proper surfactant ratio is maintained at 0.5% v/v. If mixing with a high-quality glyphosate (Roundup), you can cut the Sure-mix rate in half (0.25% v/v) (Known generic versions of Assure II are Contender, Elegant, Idol, Leopard, Marshall, and Yuma. Please check that they are the same concentration as Assure II prior to use, if using Assure II rates.)
Statue – new in 2019, it is clethodim with a new and improved surfactant. 6-leaf is listed as the maximum size. Carrier (MSO/non-ionic surfactant) must be used with this product.
Venture L – can be used on vol. corn until the 4-leaf stage. One advantage of Venture L is that there is some limited residual activity, which can control later flushes. If used on its own at higher water volumes, consider adding Turbocharge to maintain the surfactant rate.
Q I know you can interchange Suremix and Turbocharge. But what if I cannot get either?
Ans You will have to ask your retailer for a suitable substitute. One mix that a former Crop Protection salesperson used was 2L/1000 of any Non-Ionic Surfactant (Agral 90) with 2.5L/1000 of a crop oil concentrate. The crop oil concentrates are generally about 83% oil and 17% surfactant.
Manganese Deficiency in Soybeans
If you are in an area prone to it, you may have started to see visual symptoms already, means it is time to spray it. In severe cases you will have to spray twice (or more). Manganese applied to foliage does not move within the plant. Hence why you must apply it a second time or subsequent times each time you see visual deficiency. Previous applications do not move to new growth, you may have to spray multiple times at lower rates on soils prone to deficiency, rather than 1 large rate at once.
Available Manganese Products in Ontario for Soybeans (and other crops)
The Life of a Leafhopper – Leafhoppers are blown in every year from the U.S. Typically, they start to build up around July 1. Leafhoppers go through 2-4 life cycles a season in Ontario. Heat encourages shorter life cycles and higher leafhopper levels. Females lay 2-3 eggs daily in the main veins and petioles of plant leaves. Females live for about 1 month. Edible bean seed treated with an insecticide should give about 1 month of control. Spraying dimethoate gives some initial knock down. I figure about 30% of dimethoate activity is by knock down. The other 70% is by residual. The plant takes up dimethoate. Dimethoate does not kill the eggs. Any eggs that hatch or leafhoppers that fly in will be controlled by residual dimethoate. The residue should last for about 10 days. Matador is not systemic. Matador residual is shorter than dimethoate and Matador breaks down quicker when it is hot.
Thrip Feeding in Corn
If you are scouting your corn and it has an off look to it. It maybe thrips feeding on the leaves. Typically, it does not cause yield losses at this stage.
Root Rots in Soybeans
When checking for nodulation in soybeans, you can also check for root rots. There is a difference in soybean genetics when it comes to root rot resistance.
Here is a good guide on identifying root rots.
Making No-till Soybeans Work – 3 quick hitters
1) Do not chop stalks the fall before. It just creates a big mat of residue for the drill or planter to try and work through. It significantly increases the amount of surface area of stalks to bare soil. Then there will also be issues with nutrient tie up. (Yes, some people disagree with me on that one)
2) Downforce is key in years like 2021. If you need extra weight on the drill or planter, use it. There are kits to add suitcase weights if you need them.
3) Banding fertilizer. I feel this is a must on low testing soils. We need drills with mid-row banders or 2x2 fertilizer on the 15” planters if you want to maximize your soybean yields.
Question - Can I use the Pre-Side dress Nitrate Test if I have already applied broadcast nitrogen? (Say 100 lbs. N/ac?)
Answer – Not really, I mean you can test for it, but it was not designed to be used when commercial fertilizer has already been applied in significant amounts. A few consultants that do use PSNT in-season when N has been applied, use it to try and gauge how much N has been lost, rather than as a tool to fine-tune exact in-season application.
Nitrogen Rates
You never want to run out of nitrogen. This means you will always put on too much for the expected yield when it comes to corn fertilization. Once you accept that you will always be wrong on the rate applied, hopefully the decision will be easier. I have found a few situations where the yield the client is aspiring to does not match up with the rate of N being applied. If you have done everything else correct, and still have not hit your yield goal, maybe it is time to do a few N strips at different rates to see if that is what is holding you back.
I want to adjust my nitrogen rates in-crop, what is the main driver on this?
Answer – In my opinion after playing around with the Ontario nitrogen calculator, it is yield. The Ontario nitrogen calculator is a great tool for fine tuning your nitrogen recommendations. Nitrate sampling is great but unless you are sampling based on landscape position to figure out relative differences, I do not feel there is much change from year to year when it comes to fine tuning N recs. Yield is still the main driver of how much you will require.
For example, in the last 5 years of there has been a swing of the OMAFRA spring nitrate sampling of about 8 ppm to 13 ppm. If you had 170 bu/ac corn this would mean 177 lbs of N at 8 ppm, and 149 lbs of N at 13 ppm. But if you had 190 bu.ac corn, this would mean 200 lbs of N/ac at 8 ppm and 170 lbs N/ac at 13 ppm. But the long-range nitrate tests follow a much narrower band than 8 to 13 ppm. It is tight around the 10-12 ppm number.
A Recap on PSNT Sampling and Revised PSNT Recommendations
Ontario Ministry of Agriculture and Food
Verifying a Pre-Sidedress Soil Nitrate Threshold Test for Evaluating Nitrogen Top-Up Needs | Field Crop News
Purpose: Pre-sidedress soil nitrate test (PSNT) provide a means of estimating soil nitrogen supply, and can aid producers in fine-tuning their nitrogen application rates for corn. One drawback of current soil nitrate tests is that they are only calibrated for situations where all of the nitrogen being measured has come from soil mineralization, that is cores need to be taken...
Nitrogen Status in 2021 Corn Fields | Field Crop News
Summary Soil nitrogen supply (mineralization, loss) can be influenced by weather (soil temperature, moisture) each spring. OMAFRA leads an annual Pre Sidedress Nitrogen Test (PSNT) survey to gauge year-to-year levels across Ontario. PSNT soil samples were collected from 93 sites across Ontario from May 31st to June 2nd, 2021. The average PSNT value was 13 ppm, similar to the long-term...
Tissue samples in Winter Wheat
This year they keep coming back low in boron. I think we need to start trying boron in wheat when applying the first past of nitrogen. I do not know if we will get a response, but you do not know if you do not try.
I am going to apply $200 worth of fertilizer per acre to my field willy-nilly.
If you are spreading manure today without auto-steer and without rate control or a scale, that is what is happening when putting on 15 MT/ac of beef finishing manure. If you are using this spreader on say 500 acres per year, for 5 years. That means you are applying over half a million dollars’ worth of nutrients (yes you did not write a cheque for it, that is the problem!) on an even more valuable crop, without any way of measuring how you had applied it or knowing where it was applied.
There is technology available to do a better job. The manure spreader tractor should be running auto steer, just as your fertilizer spreader or sprayer is. It should have a scale on it so you can monitor the rate. And ideally if it is a dry spreader, running hydraulic drive on the apron to adjust for ground speed and rate. And yes, there is technology available for the spreader to do that. See below.
Digi-Star Products: Indicators: NT 8000i
Digi-Star is an international provider of measuring solutions for optimizing agricultural performance.
ISOCAN weigh cell system - GT Bunning
The Topcon Apollo spreader controller has all the features for today’s farming techniques. The standalone ISOCAN screen enables independent control of spreader with only 12 Volt power required from tractor Target application rate is entered into the controller which then monitors the load and adjusts the floor speed accordingly. GPS variable rate technology is supplied...
“Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently.”
— Henry Ford