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Latimer Iowa | P.T. Barnum quote was "there is a sucker is born every minute...." I heard a different one today, "What truly divides people is the belief that only one perspective deserves to be heard while everyone else should remain silent" Anyone that is defensive about what was said is demonstrating the need on this site for counterpoints. Group think is dangerous. I want young guys reading stuff here, who many younger people do read to glean info, before they become jaded, to know there are multiple ways to skin a cat.
It truly amazes me the farmers religiously watch weekly TV shows/videos, pay to attend conferences put on by the so-called agronomists, to hear about how great they will be if only they buy this product. Yields will be huge, nobody else can grow as good as yields as we can by buying our stuff, our stuff is the best stuff ever, you will be rich, without realizing they are just being titillated by the carnival barker. "Sustainable" product hawkers are just as bad as the conventional product hawkers.
The only true way to be "sustainable" is to be both environmentally AND economically sustainable. There is a balance that can be reached without tipping the scales to morbidly obese and having a heart attack, or only eating vegetables and having the gauntness of a runt pig.
So we have tar spot. The real question should be is WHY we have tar spot, not how should we treat the tar spot? Why does one farm need a kitchen sink of fungicides and another farm doesn't?
On my farm, which is the only farm I will claim to know, even when tar spot has been very active in the area, a diverse rotation, lots of manure, active soil biology that has not been killed off, has negated the need for pesticide application. The same thing has been the case on my oat crops. It seems feeding beneficials instead of killing them and creating a sterile environment has advantages. If someone asks me if they should spray fungicide on their oats, first question I ask is, did you spray fungicide on your corn and/or bean crop? If they say yes, my advice is, yes, they will likely want it on their oats. If they say no, the thought is they will likely not need to spray. I am not selling anything though and not trying to feed my lifestyle by selling anything.
There much larger acreage farmers then my little operation, up by West Bend Iowa that never spray fungicides, use lots of manure for fertilizer, and they have great yields and great looking crops. I would argue they have greener thumbs then me. It does take a mind shift and commitment.
Speaking of manure, I have eaten my share of *manure* (sub in a four letter word) over the years and have a fairly robust defensive immune system, I find spirted discussions fun. :-)
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P.T. Barnum and the circus quote