A plant pathologist says he is seeing more examples of crop diseases in recent weeks. Dr. Damon Smith with the University of Wisconsin tells Brownfield more samples coming to the lab have corn tar spot. “We do have a few fields under irrigation up in the central sands area that’s had higher severity levels so we’re keeping an eye on some of those. We know those irrigated environments, they can allow the disease to move a lot, lot faster.”
Smith says tar spot is occurring a bit later in the growing season, just like 2019.
Earlier this year, Smith says gray leaf spot was expanding through the corn canopy during humid conditions, but dryer conditions have keep most of it in the lower canopy and he’s not expecting gray leaf spot to cause significant yield losses.
