MICHAEL CLINE
LADOGA, IN
PROACTIVE PROTECTION AND SCOUTING STRENGTHEN DISEASE CONTROL IN CORN
Situation
“Insurance,” said Michael Cline of Ladoga, Ind. That’s how he explained the decision made by Cline Farms to invest each year in a foliar fungicide to protect corn against disease and maximize its yield potential.
“In the past few years, with corn prices up, it’s been important to ‘protect yield’ to reap the benefits,” said Michael. “And protecting the potential in the field remains a big concern, even when corn prices fall.”
The Clines emphasize boots-in-the-field. Michael, his father Mike, uncle Allen and cousins Kyle and Tyler invest time and dollars to turn out the best corn yields possible each year. They research and evaluate products on the farm to determine how well they protect corn from weeds and disease. They park the truck and walk the fields to scout crops and determine which input worked and which one didn’t work.
In 2013, a season that started with cool, wet weather, the Clines worried that disease might hit their corn extra hard. “If we see from our scouting reports and forecasts that there are areas where disease may be a concern, we’ll go ahead and pull the trigger on a fungicide application,” Cline said. “We’re being proactive rather than reactive.”
Solution
The Clines learned about a new fungicide called FORTIX®. It offers a “One and Done” strategy—full-season fungicide benefits with one early application. FORTIX combines fluoxastrobin, a fast-acting strobilurin, with flutriafol, the most residual and systemic of all triazoles. The complementary modes of action provide broad spectrum activity against a variety of corn foliar diseases that may affect yield potential.
On 50 acres of corn, at V5, they applied FORTIX, tankmixed with a post-emergence herbicide. On an adjacent 50 acres, they treated corn with a different fungicide, and some acres they left untreated.
“The early-season timing worked well. I don’t have to make an extra trip in the field,” observed Cline. “When you apply at V5, you are trying to predict if you are going to have disease pressure. You are going to have some years when you win big with putting on a fungicide and others when you don’t.”
Cline applied the fungicide in anticipation that disease pressure might quickly surge in the fields after the corn was too big to spray by ground. “If you get into a really wet July and August, disease pressure can build up and explode quickly,” he noted. “That’s the protection we’re after.”
In corn, FORTIX provides season-long control against Gray Leaf Spot, Southern and Northern Corn Leaf Blight, Northern Corn Leaf Spot, Anthracnose Leaf Blight, Common and Southern Rust and Eyespot.
Success
“I did not see a yield difference,” noted Cline. However, that doesn’t discount the importance of a strong disease control program, he points out. “There are times when I see a 10-bushel increase,” Cline said, “and times when I don’t see that big of an increase. It is a matter of being proactive rather than reactive.”
“The potential to increase the yield is one of the benefits,” Cline said. “I plan to use FORTIX again this year to help provide that insurance.”
He finds value in meticulously scouting fields to figure out where disease pressure may be greatest to target where fungicide applications may provide the greatest benefit against potential yield loss. The more you look at your fields, the better you’ll get at scouting them and the more you’ll know where a fungicide will be most effective, he observed.
Cline appreciates the early season application that FORTIX offers. As he fine-tunes his disease control program, he hopes to place FORTIX where disease is most likely to appear and where it’ll be in place to fend off that disease, season long.