Jim Carley
Armstrong, IL
Fungicide Applied Early Strengthens Soybeans In A Tough Year
Situation
The care given to a soybean crop early in the season has a lot to do with how well it yields at harvest, observes Jim Carley. The retired schoolteacher has partnered with his father-in-law Phil Thornton—a long time corn and soybean grower—for the past three years. And in that time, he has seen the importance of being prepared transfer particularly well from the classroom to their fields near Armstrong, Ill.
The growers farm to maximize yield and profit. And, as Thornton explained, every input—fertilizer, herbicide or fungicide—has to return significantly more to the operation that it costs.
“I’ve only been in this game a couple of years,” said Carley, who relies on Thornton’s experience as a long-time grower. In turn, Thornton encourages Carley to be inquisitive, try different production practices and see for himself what works.The growers plant soybeans in a variety of fields, including some that are leased. The challenge, said Carley, is to maximize soybean yields and prepare the crop to do its very best in every field.
Solution
For Thornton and Carley, the “One and Done” message of a newly registered product FORTIX® Fungicide dovetailed perfectly with Thornton’s philosophy of encouraging Carley to experiment on the farm.
FORTIX Fungicide offers a “One and Done” strategy—full-season fungicide benefits with just one early application. FORTIX combines fluoxastrobin, a fast-acting strobilurin and flutriafol, the most residual and systemic of all triazoles. The complimentary modes of action provide broad spectrum activity against a variety of plant diseases. It is registered for corn and soybeans and is marketing jointly by Arysta LifeScience and Cheminova, Inc.
Thornton applied most of his FORTIX to their contract corn grown for Frito Lay. It went on with the grower’s postemerge herbicide application. (And noted Thornton, it ultimately boosted corn yields.)
Left with part of a jug of FORTIX, the growers decided to apply the remainder to soybeans just starting to grow in the tree-ringed field, where the outermost rows are shaded. It’s also a field heavily favored for feeding by deer.
In soybeans, FORTIX provides season-long control against Frogeye leaf spot, Cercospora blight, pod and stem blight, brown spot, powdery mildew, soybean rust, Rhizoctonia aerial blight, Sclerotinia stem rot, Alternaria leaf spot and Anthracnose. It also suppresses white mold.
And as Carley pointed out, “With FORTIX, you’re getting the fungicide on early enough that it can be more of a preventive than if you were applying it mid-late August when it is more of a bandage. Putting FORTIX on post emergence, you’re hoping disease never develops.”
Carley applied FORTIX as part of his program to prepare the soybean field to fend off disease and be healthy enough to produce well despite the hungry deer. Then a mid-season drought set in, and the growers became even more convinced of the value of FORTIX.
Success
“We left a strip around the outside of the beans that we didn’t spray with FORTIX. And then sprayed the interior of the field—most of the field--was sprayed with it,” recalled Carley.
Then drought set in, with almost no rain from late June through August. Carley knew the outside rows would yield less—as they were competing with tree roots to grow. But he didn’t expect the interior rows, sprayed with FORTIX, to yield 12 bushels better at harvest.
“They were very tall beans—as high as the hood of my pick-up truck. And, from the combine, it seemed like the soybeans that didn’t have FORTIX were laying over more, kind of in a matted pile. I think because they were so tall, the FORTIX allowed the stalk strength of the soybean to hold up, where the parts of the field that didn’t get FORTIX laid down more,” he said.
“The outside rows made about 29 bushels per acre and the inside made 41—a 12 bushel difference. Some of that yield difference is soil type and the tree line, but I think the FORTIX helped,” said Carley.
“Even if the FORTIX only caused a five-bushel difference—that’s $60 to $70 per acre, he calculated. “I’d like to try it again, possibly in a different field.”