easymoney - 9/11/2025 18:18
Hilltop Husker - 9/11/2025 15:16
Southern rust comes every so often. It's not indicative of any broken system. I had corn die in August of southern rust years back long before fungicides were a word the average farmer was using.
Most dryland farms here still don't even use fungicide. This isn't resistance.
Yep, if Southern rust only blew up once every 5–10 years and that’s when we pulled out fungicides, fine, that’s how the system should work.
But look at the record, Southern rust showed up in the ’60s–’70s. Since then we’ve added gray leaf spot, anthracnose, Goss’s wilt, tar spot… five major fungal diseases stacked on top of the old ones. In 50 years we haven’t fixed a single one. Instead, we just spray more.
That’s the definition of a broken system. Healthy plants shouldn’t need two, three, four fungicide passes just to limp across the finish line.
Think of it like your own body: if you had to get a couple shots a year to feel okay, maybe you’d accept it. But then you start needing a flu shot, then sinus meds, then treatment for a bronchial infection… at some point you’d have to admit your immune system is compromised. That’s exactly where our corn system is right now.
Your point about losing corn years ago, or dryland guys not spraying, doesn’t change that reality.
Southern Rust impact on yield