Grand Rapids, MI | CND - 9/2/2009 23:36
How do you know who is right?
IMHO you are both wrong! Here is what I mean:
Did you scout the wheat? What diseases did you have in the wheat and at what severity? You are correct about the flag leaf, your number is a bit high, but it is very important, If however, you only have an extrememly light pressure from diseases and don't have a weather pattern at flowering that is conducive for developing FHB, then your dad is right, you have wasted your $$ and ran over good wheat. On the other hand, if there is significant disease pressure on the flag leaf you can gain 10 bu/ac or more by applying a fungicide.
Thankfully for most diseases there is a way to know which is the case, it is called SCOUTING! It costs probably only $1/ac per trip over or less. Almost all the diseases you can catch in time if you are watching close and have a responsive spray operator. The only exception is FHB, you would need to spray the Folicur ahead of symptoms to be effective. That still requires scouting to know when the wheat is susceptible and a good eye on the weather forcast.
Bottom line is educate yourself on this stuff, or do what I did when I ran a farm and hire a professional scout. I did take the time to educate myself to be a better consumer of my hired agronomist/scout's information, but found that during corn/soybean planting time I simply did not have the time to do the scouting effectvely on a regular basis. |
Where's the Benefit of Fungicides on Wheat?
