Throughout all of the frequent rains we experienced this summer, my catchphrase was “what a time to be a fungus”. If there was ever a year we should see a fungicide response it should be this one and it penciled out favorably in most of our cases.
Corn Fungicide
We sprayed all our corn acres with Trivapro plus 1 pint / acre of Brandt’s B-Mo micronutrient product. Most of our acreage was applied via airplane through Brandt while several of our larger fields were custom hired with a ground sprayer.
Brandt Aerial Spray
Cost
| $ / gallon | oz / acre | $ / acre | |
| Trivapro | $ 197.72 | 13.7 | $ 21.16 |
| B-Mo | $ 35.86 | 16 | $ 4.48 |
| Masterlock | $ 64.32 | 5 | $ 2.52 |
| Plane Application | $ 9.00 | ||
| Total | $ 37.16 |
Response
If you’ve read my article on the corn plot, you may recall that we weren’t able to see a measurable response from the check strip across the plot and the applicator didn’t leave check strips in any other fields that we’re aware of. Not requesting more check strips in other fields was a regretful oversight on our part but we’re at least comforted by having a record corn crop that came from some combination of unisolated causes.
Custom Hire Hagie
Cost
| $ / gallon | oz / acre | $ / acre | |
| Trivapro | $ 139 | 13.7 | $ 14.87 |
| B-Mo | $ 35.86 | 16 | $ 4.48 |
| Hagie Application | $ 7.50 | ||
| Total | $ 26.85 |
Response
The same summer rains that increased the need for a fungicide also made the ground muddy and hard to drive a sprayer across, so our ground application near brown silk was less timely than it could have been. We were still able to measure a 9.2 bu/acre average response.
| Planting Date | Spray Date | Variety | Method | Response |
| April 2 | July 15 | Nutech 74B6AM | Ground | + 9.0 |
| April 6 | July 15 | Wyffels 7956 | Ground | + 8.4 |
| April 7 | July 19 | Wyffels 7888 | Ground | + 5.8 |
| April 7 | July 19 | Wyffels 7696 | Ground | + 13.4 |
| Average | + 9.2 |
Profitability
✅ This response is profitable at a corn price higher than $2.92
Soybean Fungicide
This was actually our first year spraying a bean fungicide which we did entirely ourselves with a pull-type sprayer. None of our beans were super tall this year and we followed our herbicide tracks so the plant damage appeared to be minimal.
For chemicals, we applied Cover XL (generic Quilt) and Lambda (generic Warrior) plus added some Brandt micronutrients in half of the loads. This was applied at what we considered R3, although the period at which you can find some 1/4″ pods while more are being added seems wide and ambiguous.
Reduced Data Set
While we sprayed every field with a fungicide and tracked everything in our monitor, not all the data was usable or fair. In several cases, the check strip would be too close to the edge of the field (or even along the edge) which would include some of the headland in the comparison. We angle cut our beans, and even though overlap control is enabled and somewhat helpful, we do still get this sawtooth pattern of low yields.
Most of the data I allowed for use was in the middle of the field and included a check strip which could be measured from both sides to account for a potential gradient change across the field.
Fungicide/Insecticide Only
Cost
| $ / gallon | oz / acre | $ / acre | |
| Cover XL | $ 59 | 19.2 | $ 8.85 |
| Lambda | $ 35 | 3.84 | $ 1.05 |
| Surfactant | $ 8 | 4.8 | $ 0.30 |
| Sprayer Pass | $ 6.50 | ||
| Total | $ 16.70 |
Response
| Planting Date | Variety | Response (vs unsprayed check) |
| April 16 | Nutech 39N05E Nutech 35N03E | + 3.8 |
| April 19 | Pioneer P34T21SE Pioneer P38T76E | + 5.2 |
| April 19 | Pioneer P34T21SE Pioneer P38T76E | + 2.8 |
| Average | + 3.9 |
Profitability
✅ This response is profitable at a soybean price higher than $4.28
Fungicide/Insecticide/Micronutrients
Cost
| $ / gallon | oz / acre | $ / acre | |
| Cover XL | $ 59 | 19.2 | $ 8.85 |
| Lambda | $ 35 | 3.84 | $ 1.05 |
| Brandt B-Mo | $ 35.86 | 16 | $ 4.48 |
| Brandt Smart Trio | $ 18 | ~20 | $ 2.81 |
| Surfactant | $ 8 | 4.8 | $ 0.30 |
| Sprayer Pass | $ 6.50 | ||
| Total | $ 23.99 |
Response
| Planting Date | Variety | Response (vs unsprayed check) |
| April 26 | Pioneer P38T76E | + 3.4 |
| April 27 | Pioneer P38T05E | + 3.8 |
| May 7 | Pioneer P38T05E | + 4.9 |
| May 13 | Pioneer P38T05E Stine 39EA02 | + 3.0 |
| May 13 | Stine 36EA02 | + 3.1 |
| Average | + 3.6 |
Profitability
✅ This response is profitable at a soybean price higher than $6.66
To Micronutrient or Not?
The responses in each of the previous examples were compared to an unsprayed strip. In several fields we had micronutrient and non-micronutrient strips next to each other to calculate a fair response, but due to unreliable data near field edges or poor areas only one of these comparisons was reliably usable.
| Planting Date | Variety | Micronutrient Response |
| April 16 | Pioneer P39N05E | + 0.3 |
The additional cost of the micronutrients is $7.29 / acre, so a 0.3 bu / acre response would only be profitable above $24.30 soybeans. I won’t dismiss the product on one data point though as I know adding micronutrients to a fungicide pass is popular for many growers, so I’d be curious to try this again next year with more intentionality about where the adjacent strips are placed and hopefully have better data.
Summary
| Cost / Acre | Response | |
| Corn- Aerial w/ micronutrient | $ 37.16 | ? |
| Corn- Ground w/ micronutrient | $ 26.85 | + 9.2 |
| Soybean- Ground, no micronutrient | $ 16.70 | + 3.9 |
| Soybean- Ground, with micronutrient | $ 23.99 | + 3.6 |
