One of the few positives in a drought year – is the lack of disease pressure on the corn crop during the growing season. Kiersten Wise, Purdue Extension crop disease specialist says the weather has limited the amount of foliar diseases seen this year.
“But – we are concerned because the hot and dry weather does lend itself to the development of Aspergillus Ear Rot,” she says. “It’s a fungus that gets into the ears that causes the ear to rot and also produces a mycotoxin that is damaging to both humans and livestock.”
Drought stressed fields are the most susceptible and Wise says this year there are a lot of those acres. “So what we want to do,” she says, “is scout fields prior to harvest to determine if aspergillus is out there and is a problem.” When scouting a field if you pull back the husks and there is an olive-green mold, she says there is a good chance there is an issue.
Wise tells Brownfield it is important to identify which fields are affected and to keep that grain segregated. “Because it not only can cause a lot of dockage at the elevator – if you’re feeding it to livestock it can cause feed refusal and carcinogenic affects,” she says. Wise recommends harvesting those fields first and storing that grain separately.
She says high quality grain will be at a premium this year.