Why Use Fungicides in Corn Silage Production?

Foliar fungicides are becoming more commonly used in corn silage production. When used properly, they can increase yield, feed quality, and profitability for farmers.

In our Maizex agronomy work over the last several years, fungicides have been consistently showing the highest ROI in our intensive management trials.

The Disease Triangle

When considering fungicides, we normally evaluate the environment, host, and pathogen relationships to predict whether a fungicide application is justified. This is also known as the disease triangle, where the environment is the growing season (hot/cold/wet/dry), the host is the crop (stage/potential/susceptibility), and the pathogens are the fungal diseases that can be detrimental to your crop and are normally present in our fields each year.

When you have a great crop that has very good yield potential, it warrants being protected. When you evaluate the conditions each season to determine whether you should spray, you need to consider the recent weather patterns as well as the long-term forecasts. If there is warm, wet weather in July leading up to tasseling, this would support a fungicide application because of the favourable environment for fungal pathogens.

Why and When Spray Fungicides?

We spray fungicides because they help protect the plant from fungal diseases like rust and northern corn leaf blight. These diseases compromise the plant’s ability to photosynthesise and produce yield, which equates to less starch per acre. They can also physically destroy plant biomass by ‘eating’ leaf tissue, reducing your overall volume and tonnage.

We have also found that fungicides help to improve overall feed quality by improving stay-green and preserving fiber digestibility. By protecting your crop, fungicides ultimately allow you to increase your tonnage and improve your feed quality.

There are some fungicides that offer a mode of action that suppresses DON mycotoxins in corn silage. To reduce the toxin load in your feed, you need to apply the correct fungicide during the corn-silking period to reduce the initial DON infection.

It is not a silver bullet, but when given the option to choose a fungicide, I would be sure to use one with activity on DON. Fungicides that offer this protection would include Miravis® Neo, Delaro® Complete + Proline, and Veltyma® + Caramba®.

The ideal time to spray fungicide on your corn silage is at VT-R1. Simply put, this means waiting to see tassel emergence through to silk emergence and pollination. It is best to apply before the silk has turned brown. When trying to reduce DON toxins in your corn silage, it is essential that silks are present in order to have protection.

Contact your Agri-Advisor if you need help choosing the right fungicides for your corn silage production.
 

Source: This article was originally published on Maizex.