Management Options Outlined at Ag Action
Published: Friday, February 7, 2020
No matter what happened as recently as the last growing season, farmers always seem to be looking ahead to better outcomes.
That was the prevailing attitude among those attending Ag Action 2020 last Friday at Kalamazoo Valley Community College. Sponsored by Michigan State University Extension staff from Southwest Michigan and hosted by Van Buren County Extension, the day-long symposium provided 144 registered attendees from eight counties with information they should be able to use to plan for the immediate future, and beyond.
"We (farmers) do like to whine about things, and some of the information we present is, 'Well, this is the way it is and you really can't do anything about it,' " said St. Joseph County Extension field crops education Eric Anderson. "But what we try to do is give them information so they can make better management decisions. Maybe after two or three wet years in a row, this is the nudge they need to consider no-till, or to put in shorter-season crops to get cover crops in to dry out some of that moisture.
"Hopefully, they're getting some updated information that will help them with their management."
Speakers rotating through in the auditorium and five breakout rooms provided insight on everything from weather forecasts for the spring, summer and fall (it can't be any worse and should be better); to a looming tar spot threat—a fungal infestation that could have a significant impact on corn grown in Michigan, Indiana, Illinois and Wisconsin; to finally, an economic assessment of the Phase one China trade deal recently signed by President Trump.
In what was billed as MSU marketing economist Jim Hilker's final presentation before his impending retirement, the longtime tenured professor illustrated state, national and international market trends with numerous graphs and charts as part of the Field Crop Management Update.
Despite the record wet conditions blanketing most of the Corn Belt, 2019 yields were still the sixth-highest in history, after totals were adjusted by USDA.
Still, pricing data wasn't exactly music to everybody's ears.
"Sounds like if you can get $4 a bushel (for corn), you better grab it," one farmer, who asked not to be named, said with a tone of resignation. "I was kind of surprised he didn't say the prices are going to get better with the trade deal. He really didn't think that's going to happen."
The details from the celebrated trade deal, finalized on Jan. 15, don't make total sense to Hilker. The first two years of the agreement, 2020-21, call for China to purchase $40 billion of U.S. agricultural products each year, with Trump indicating it could reach $50 billion a year. Unless the effects of African swine fever, which has wiped out at least 40 percent of China's pork production, ramp up demand for U.S. exports, the numbers don't add up.
"I don't know how we're going to get to $40 billion (of agricultural goods purchased by China) when we've never been at more than $24 billion in the past," Hilker said. "I just don't have the math to get there. Maybe if pork becomes a part of it we could, but I don't see it."
Groused another farmer, who asked to remain anonymous, "Those figures are twice what they've ever been in the past. How in the (world) are they ever going to reach that? That doesn't sound realistic. They're going to take they're sweet time coming back, if they ever do."
Of immediate concern to growers of field, seed and sweet corn is tar spot, especially in irrigated fields. An outbreak was detected in Indiana's LaPorte County in 2015 and it has since been found throughout the four-state region surrounding southern Lake Michigan.
"This disease has caused significant problems, especially on irrigated corn, in our area of west Michigan," said VanBuren Extension field crop educator Bruce Mackellar. "This should be on everybody's radar."
In its early stages, the disease can appear on corn leaves as a single black ascomata, no bigger than a grain of ground coffee, although at that stage, the plant is already significantly infected. As it advances over the course of seven-14 days, it looks like someone splattered black paint on the plant by shaking a loaded paint brush at it. At that stage, the leaves and husks are turning yellow and brown.
The disease is as effective at plant destruction as a herbicide and can result in lodging. MacKellar projected photos of large areas of brown fields killed by tar spot. Under the right conditions, the ascomata will release spores.
"They produce mountains of (spores), and when they're released, they can go up into the air fairly significantly and we found these guys can travel 250, 300, 400 feet very easily," MacKellar said. "And if you get a thunderstorm that kicks up heavy winds, they can travel for miles.
"We didn't have an issue with tar spot (in Michigan) in 2015, but then up in Allegan County in 2016 we found a couple of fields that were infected. Then we had to have it identified to figure out what it actually was. We didn't think it was going to be much of an issue, but it was different enough that we kept an eye on it. Boy, you could make a career of being wrong on some things. This stuff spread like wildfire."
By 2018, tar spot could be found in all of Michigan's southwestern counties. Last year, tar spot may have been prevented from reaching southeastern Michigan only because fields weren't planted with corn due to unseasonably wet conditions.
"We looked at areas in southwest Michigan last year where it was pretty widespread, it probably took 10-15 bushels off a lot fields," MacKellar said. "The most damage we had this year was with lodging. You could take those stalks, when you get tar spot up in that 30-percent range, and you could just pinch those stalks and they'd fall over.
"It wasn't that it was totally destroying yield and yield potential, but what it lowered was test weight and overall yields by probably 10-15 percent," MacKeller said. "But if it happens early enough in the season, it can actually kick those plants out and kill them, and we could lose the whole crop. It could be catastrophic. Early scouting is always a challenge."
The disease is native to the highlands of Mexico, where the climate is similar to that of Midwestern growing conditions.
MacKellar said the ultimate solution to eliminating tar spot will come through the development of resistant hybrids. In the meantime, it can be controlled with fungicides and St. Joseph County Extension irrigation educator Lyndon Kelly pointed out interest applying fungicide through irrigation water is growing.
Researchers are also studying the best time of day to irrigate, the duration of watering and when maximum leaf wetness should occur. Preliminary results have been promising.
Steve Passig, of Niles, attended Ag Action with the hope of learning how to protect his sweet corn, green bean and cabbage crops.
"There was good information and just learning about bugs and things," he said. "I learned a little bit about tar spot last year, but now that we're finding it's starting to show up a little bit more in sweet corn, I'm becoming a little bit more concerned.
"We have not seen it on any of ours, but we're going to keep on it. We do scout some, but we're probably going to have to do more of it. It just never ends—there's always going to be something new to deal with."
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