Corn growers are testing several ways to battle early corn die-down. Late-season nutrition appears one of the most cost-effective. Some suppliers recommend spraying fungicides during kernel fill, but that’s a means of coping with disease instead of keeping corn naturally healthy.
Dec. 6, 2018 — We’ve waited since mid-October to publish this photo from one of our clients in north central Iowa. He wanted to carefully review results of other tests on his farm before attributing the 16-bu. yield benefit to two late-season treatments in summer 2018. Both were applied as the first tassels were appearing.
1. Foliar spray of Bio Empruv mobilized with WakeUP Summer.
2. Y-drop application of 40 units of nitrogen as 32% UAN.
Of course we’d like to see more replications such as UAN only, and Bio Empruv/WakeUP only. But in 10 years of doing random-rep field trials on the Renewable Farming research farm, we’ve learned that farmers under intense time pressure just don’t have enough hours at critical moments.
Even so, substantial results like a 16-bu. yield difference in the same field are useful indicators. We greatly appreciate farmers’ willingness to share what they see.
Yield monitor photos and cell-phone cameras are a great innovation for accelerating progress on finding what works and what doesn’t! The field of new biologicals and biostimulants is bursting with new products. It’s a challenge to sort through them.