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* I believe we were promised a killer meteor quite some time ago…
As Ken Ferrie travels through parts of central Illinois this week, he sees a corn crop that has changed radically in the past seven days.
“Disease pressure is bringing fields to their knees, and a lot of that corn here will die before it can finish the race for yield,” says Ferrie, Farm Journal Field Agronomist and owner of Crop-Tech Consulting, Heyworth, Ill.
Corn that typically would be filling kernels this time of year is, instead, prematurely shutting down due to a cocktail mix of heavy disease pressure coming at it from many fronts – gray leaf spot, northern leaf blight, common and southern rust, tar spot and, most recently, Goss’s bacterial wilt and leaf blight.
“That picture-perfect photo finish you like to see with the top of the plant still green and the husk turning ripe is getting harder and harder to find as you visit these fields,” he says.
D and L-1 hybrids are a concern. Ferrie says the late disease push is particularly hard on D hybrids. These are hybrids that have kernel depth changes, positive or negative, based on populations and environmental conditions during the last 30 days of grain fill.
This post is mostly snark because I couldn’t resist putting that quote into a headline…
The silver lining is that the pressure has developed late enough that many of the D hybrids will still produce average to even slightly above-average yields but not record-setting yields.
posted by Rich Miller
Thursday, Sep 16, 21 @ 11:00 am
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Farmer friend offered one word for his corn harvest, “Unprecedented”.
In parts of the state, this harvest will likely be a record yield. The record-breaking yields, in some cases, will top prior records by a HUGE amount.
Comment by Downstate Thursday, Sep 16, 21 @ 11:06 am
I feel like the Question of the Day should be “Name that Cocktail”.
Comment by JoanP Thursday, Sep 16, 21 @ 11:08 am
Ken’s spot on, typically is. Tar spot is a troubling new disease that over the past two years has been impacting corn yields in Illinois and the rest of the midwest.
Now all you “city” folks know why the spray planes were flying a lot this summer. Farmers tried to stay ahead of that cocktail of heavy disease pressure by spraying a lot of fungicides.
However, even with the less than ideal finish with this years corn crop - the yields are still really good. And the chance to sell $6 or $7 corn this summer gave every farmer ample opportunity to be VERY profitable this fall.
One last thing - soybean yields are gonna be awesome again this fall.
Comment by Cool Papa Bell Thursday, Sep 16, 21 @ 11:09 am
For heaven’s sake don’t bring up the use of fungicides. The corn will be securing the services of Tom Devore to protect their right to have disease.
Comment by Demoralized Thursday, Sep 16, 21 @ 11:16 am
Might be a good Welcome sign at all Effingham County borders.
Comment by Blue Bayou Thursday, Sep 16, 21 @ 11:30 am
CPB - hope everyone sold a lot at those prices. It’s barely $5 today. Beans have had a wild ride too.
Comment by Excessively Rabid Thursday, Sep 16, 21 @ 11:37 am
Leave it to farmers to find some thing bad at the end of the rainbow.
Comment by JS Mill Thursday, Sep 16, 21 @ 12:00 pm
My father-in-law says his crops are going to be really good and really bad.
Dependent upon which fields got too much or not enough rain. He’s hoping for average to be “OK”
Comment by Bruce( no not him) Thursday, Sep 16, 21 @ 12:07 pm
Are you telling me that in the midst of catastrophic blight, rust, tar spot and bacterial wilt, the Illinois Republican Party wasted its precious seed on a corn poll?
Comment by Michelle Flaherty Thursday, Sep 16, 21 @ 12:08 pm
I may live to see the day of 250 bu/acre yields. The bad news. What happens to ethanol in 10 yrs.
Comment by Blue Dog Thursday, Sep 16, 21 @ 12:34 pm
Hey IEC, Sierra Club, JB Pritzker:
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/new-study-shows-climate-change-may-increase-spread-plant-pathogens-180978377/
New Study Shows Climate Change May Increase the Spread of Plant Pathogens Via @smithsonianmag
The time for self-congratulatory tweets is over. You want Illinois to be a National model, The Fossil Fuel Industry want to poke holes in what you have accomplished so that does not happen. The good news is you are playing on your own turf, the bad news is that just like the tobacco industry 50 years ago they are gonna pull out all the stops, which means you have to be on offense every day.
So, please, tell everyone in Chapin Rose’s district how coal fire plants are to blame for their crop failures.
Comment by Billy Bong Thursday, Sep 16, 21 @ 12:41 pm
= Excessively Rabid /
CPB - hope everyone sold a lot at those prices. It’s barely $5 today. Beans have had a wild ride too.=
It was $3.65 a year ago and with a negative basis. Farmers can make plenty of money at $5 cash corn.
Comment by Cool Papa Bell Thursday, Sep 16, 21 @ 12:47 pm
Billy Bong- There are some legitimate concerns for farmers concerning industrial wind turbines in agricultural areas, especially in areas with heavy disease pressures like the corn is facing this year. Trying to aerially apply fungicides can become a deadly gamut for the flyers through, between, and around wind turbines that can exceed 700 feet in height and span the equivalent of a football field or several football fields in width (blades). Some aerial applicators will not spray a field that has turbines in or near their flight patterns. And if they do spray, the cost may be 2xs or higher than fields without those obstructions. Additionally, the wake effect of the wind turbines themselves may also contribute to the spread of diseases that move on the wind. Not all wind companies will curtail their turbines just so a neighbor can get their fields sprayed… even though they make those promises early in the leasing or permitting process. Based on some aerial sprayer videos from Iowa, that didn’t happen. So… even renewables can have a very negative local effect on the impact of crop diseases, too.
Comment by Anon221 Thursday, Sep 16, 21 @ 1:04 pm
Blue dog, I made 260 bpa on an 80 Monday. Congrats you made it.
Comment by ilFarmer Thursday, Sep 16, 21 @ 1:16 pm
Can you imagine if Channel 20 reported on this story? “Oh no, all the corn in the fields are going to die.”
Comment by NonAFSCMEStateEmployeeFromChatham Thursday, Sep 16, 21 @ 2:06 pm
Anon221 - There are other viable options in lieu of an Air Tractor. Its one reason why there are more helicopters in the air over the past few years and drones are coming too.
Rantizo is up and flying a drone swarm that is able to cover a field with crop protection products.
@ilFarmer - seeing 300 bpa in parts of Southern Illinois where they used to be happy with 165 bpa.
Comment by Cool Papa Bell Thursday, Sep 16, 21 @ 2:12 pm
CBP, whereabouts? I’m twenty miles south of Wally’s and we were thinking 275 avg before we hit the fields. Thought it might be our best year ever. Still might be better as we do later maturity corn.
Comment by ilFarmer Thursday, Sep 16, 21 @ 2:19 pm
Earthlings rely on four basic grain crops …at our peril…given the possibility of “crop pandemic”.
Diversity is Natures’ way…monopoly is Man’$.
Comment by Dotnonymous Thursday, Sep 16, 21 @ 2:44 pm
ilFarmer - think way south of Wally’s, the 618.
I know many a farmer in your area and what you are telling me is spot on from their reports.
You were in dry slot north of Bloomington for a good portion of the summer. Way more rain from BLNO and Lincoln south than what you guys caught all year.
Comment by Cool Papa Bell Thursday, Sep 16, 21 @ 2:45 pm
Cool Papa Bell- It’s going to take a lot of drones, rechargeable batteries, and new drone pilots to be able to cover the same amount of acreage per day that planes and helicopters can cover now, based on what I read on Rantizo’s FAQs page.
Comment by Anon221 Thursday, Sep 16, 21 @ 4:13 pm
@Anon221 - I do agree with you. Their 3 drone swarm might become useful in about two or three generations of drone technology. But its all automated for now and its kinda press fly and wait for them to come back. Around windmills and other places are where it will be useful first.
And with the development of “short” corn in the pipeline - ground rigs might be more useful in those fields too.
Comment by Cool Papa Bell Thursday, Sep 16, 21 @ 4:19 pm
Anon221 -
about 400 farm-related deaths every year.
About 1 plane hitting a turbine every other year.
Tractors accidents kill about 130 people a year, you gonna ban tractors next?
Comment by Billy Bong Thursday, Sep 16, 21 @ 9:03 pm
@Blue Dog: “What happens to ethanol in 10 yrs.”
Hopefully, we will be well on the way to stop using it. it’s not a very efficient fuel, and there are much better things to do with that corn.
Comment by Odysseus Friday, Sep 17, 21 @ 3:42 pm