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Managing crop diseases despite high input costs
A technical service manager with FMC Corporation says farmers shouldn’t cut corners on disease management this season despite record high input costs.
Drake Copeland tells Brownfield commodity prices are also high and farmers need to protect the yield potential of their crop.
“I don’t think it’s something you can ignore, especially when we have aggressive diseases like southern corn rust and now tar spot,” he says. “…There’s a lot of yield potential with our hybrids we have today and so we want to protect that the best we can.”
He is encouraging growers concerned about inputs costs to holistically look at fields.
“Look at your farm and know which places we can push yields if money is tight and which places, if you do have to cut back, are fields you can do that on,” he says. “Going into 2022 we know there are supply issues and weed control is one that everybody is concerned about. Keep the residuals on the farm and then along with tar spot, southern corn rust, and the filthy five, keep applying for managing those diseases. The yield will show, and the grain prices will help with that.”
Copeland is the technical service manager for Indiana, Ohio, and Michigan.
Brownfield interviewed him during the 2022 Commodity Classic.
Audio: Drake Copeland
