Oklahoma Farm Report’s Maci Carter is talking with Kim Tutor, BASF Technical Marketing Manager for corn and wheat fungicides, about the agricultural solutions that BASF has to offer.
She said that two diseases were most prevalent in the Oklahoma-Kansas areas, tar spot and southern rust.
“We saw tar spot in Kansas in May this year; it is the earliest tar spot has ever been documented in the U.S.,” Tutor detailed. “Southern rust usually blows in from the south, but what was really interesting was it made its way all the way North to Minnesota. So, it’s been an atypical year.”
She said that wheat farmers dealt with rust early in the season, then further north of Oklahoma, some had to deal with fusarium head blight, which can result in DON vomitoxin, which producers will get docked for at the elevator.
For diseases in corn such as tar spot, southern rust, gray leaf spot, and more, Tutor recommended Veltyma fungicide because it also offers environmental stress mitigation by helping keep stomates open, facilitating better photosynthesis, optimizing growth efficiency, and promoting root growth.
BASF’s top recommendations for early-season wheat diseases are Nexicor and Preaxor fungicides. For late-season wheat protection when fusarium head blight is common, BASF recommends Sphaerex fungicide for its inclusion of two leading active ingredients: prothioconazole and metconazole.
Tutor understands that margins are tight for farmers, which makes protecting crops even more important. “I think folks who didn’t treat their crops this year really saw the impact,” she said. “My question is ‘What are you leaving on the table, in terms of profit if you don’t treat?’”
She described a field trial in Iowa in which the difference between a corn field treated with Veltyma and a corn field left untreated was 30 bushels.
“You’ve set yourself up for success. You’ve invested in the seed – maybe a seed treatment – and the right herbicide. You want to finish that season strong, and BASF is really excited to announce that we have locked in zero percent financing on our crop protection and seed treatment brands through mid-March. So please reach out to your local BASF retailer, and lock in that zero percent financing,” she advised.
Looking forward to the next season, Tutor hopes that as farmers prepare for it, they will plan to protect their crops with products like Veltyma fungicide for corn or Revytek fungicide for soybeans, so they will see a consistent performance from their crop from start to finish.
More information about BASF products can be found at agriculture.basf.us.
