Tar spot has shown its ugly head in the recent weeks. The immediate area around Wanstead is showing signs of the disease. Fields sprayed with Fungicide are still impacted, but they will fare much better then fields without treatment. Fungicides only prevent disease for approximately 2-3 weeks, so even fields that were sprayed are starting to see impacts of the disease taking hold (but to a lesser degree). Tarspot interferes with photosynthesis of the plant during grain fill resulting in poor grain fill, kernel abortion, and reduced kernel weight. It is easily recognizable with its black specks and tar like appearance accompanied by bottom dried out blackened leaves as the disease progresses. The picture below is from Kyle Pennings on Twitter. The field was sprayed with a helicopter, which missed the headlands. You can see that areas of the field that were missed are dying off drastically quicker than the rest of the field.
Soybeans are looking good in the area. With the warm weather forecasted for the next week or two, it should help speed up harvest time by adding in the late-season heat units. There is the odd field that has widespread yellowing, but most of the fields are starting to get at least a tinge. We aren’t seeing too much insect damage or disease present in the crop this year. White mold has been seen in areas that typically deal with the problem.
We are once again on the cusp of completing IP soybean contracts. If you have IPs in the ground, you can expect to get an email or phone call over the next few weeks, to clean up the final few pages of the contract before we get into the thick of harvest.
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