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Latimer Iowa | I see down below the tar spot drum is beating louder and earlier then ever. When we as farmers take our agronomic advice from the people trying to sell us product, the very product that may be a solution to a self created problem, it easy to know what that advice will be. Practice on farm, begats practice on farm, and the merry ground can make you sick.
One plot I am going to see how many applications of fungicides is effective.
Do the first pass after corn harvest in the fall, my "agronomist" salesman that shows up when its time to sell things, advised me to make a pass of 32% and AMS in the fall to break down the tough corn on corn residue from fungicide, making the pass anyway so going to throw in some fungicide with it.
Do the second pass with my pre-emerge, heck, i am making the pass anyway.
3rd pass with post-emerge because, why not, Bessie just peed on a flat rock, doom is coming!?
4th pass in July because it was foggy that morning.
5th pass at tassel
Going to spend $250 an acre on fungicide but i am going to grow 400 bushel corn, and the guys selling me inputs for a living are my best friends, at least while I am buying more product. I mean I bought the latest, greatest, traited, stacked, RNA, seed corn but it still makes sense that it needs to have more pesticides and foo foo juices applied too. The salespersons are always looking out for my best interests, check out this hat they gave me to wear advertising my gullibility.... strange that they show up earlier and earlier each year with a scary story with a solution that they peddle for the low low price of... If we can create a sterile enough field ecosystem and kill enough of the organisms out there (beneficial or not), but completely maximize the bushels of corn, that few want to buy (look at the CBOT), this has to be the best way for mama to get a new Chris-Craft. The basics of supply and demand we learned in junior high tell us the best solution to low prices is to grow more of the product and flood the market. The more we can produce the higher the prices will go!!!
Other plot we could rotate crops, integrate some livestock for fertilizer and to eat what we grow, try some IPM agronomy practices, work to reduce pesticide resistance, apply crop nutrients close to when the crop needs it, lower fertilizer rates, increase water holding capacity thus reducing erosion, runoff, and flooding. This second plot may, or may not, produce 25 bpa less corn, it does somehow always seem to pretty well match reported county crop insurance yields, but those are not real numbers anyway...
Downside to the second plot is we would be subsequently reducing our input cost by $300 bucks an acre in the rotation, so my banker can't loan me as much operating money. Wouldn't need a huge tillage tractor, digger, ripper, and a high crop sprayer so how would everyone know how cool we are? If we can drive our input costs up high enough and spend enough per acre it has to work because that is what everyone selling me something whispers in my ear at night.
Have a great day and looking forward to the weekly sales pitches.
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P.T. Barnum and the circus quote