This Yield Check report has been made possible by Specialty Hybrids.
Even though 2 percent of Michigan’s corn has been harvested, it’s been a mixed bag.
Stuart Welden, field sales representative with Specialty Hybrids, says tar spot is the underlying factor for corn.
“We’ve got fields that farmers have gotten in before they started soybeans—like they traditionally start with—and they’re seeing anywhere from record yields to taking 100 bushels off from tar spot,” he says.
Fungicide applications have helped in some cases, but Welden says that’s not true in all situations.
“Some fields there was efficacy from the fungicide, and in other fields, there is not,” says Welden. “The jury’s still out on what the right approach is to the troublesome tar spot.”
Michigan soybean harvest is four points ahead of the 5-year average at 5 percent complete. Welden is seeing record pod counts and record bean counts as combines are rolling.
“There’s a lot of people who went all in with XtendFlex soybeans, and they’re excited to see the yield,” he says. “They had the choice between glyphosate or Roundup tolerance, dicamba tolerance, or Liberty/glufosinate tolerance, so we’re excited to get some large-scale numbers from a yield perspective for those. There’s a lot of excitement around that.”
Welden encourages growers to contact their local agronomist, MSU Extension’s Marty Chilvers, Michigan Corn, or others to get ideas of how to improve for next year’s crop.
