News

August heat amplifies pest and disease pressure

Later developing crops in August were hard hit by insect pressure in West Michigan.

“I guess if it rains it pours, right?” 

Golden Harvest dealer Marv Heasley tells Brownfield western bean cutworm, Japanese beetles and spite mite pressure was especially troublesome with the dry weather.  And he says tar spot is quickly spreading throughout Michigan and Indiana.

“In about two weeks, you see it start to really start taking effect where you can just visually see it going down the road.  And then within a month, you start seeing lodging happening pretty fast when it’s really bad.”

He says farmers hard hit last year by tar spot had 20 to 100-bushel yield losses because of lodging.

Heasley spoke with Brownfield during the Michigan Corn Between the Rows Crop Tour.