Fungicides and soil health

[Jay-mo]

Ag-guy you mention from time to time how our soil health is decreasing and we now need to use fungicides more and more to combat disease.
I would counter that by saying fungicides are not being used to hold yields but to boost them substantially.
I can remember when a 30 bushel/acre wheat was considered a good crop. Now with fungicides that would be considered a disaster with average crops double that yield.
Now I know fertilizer rates are being pushed as well, but I have experienced heavily fertilized crops with no fungicide growing huge amounts of straw and yielding very poorly.

I am not trying to say you're (ag-guy)wrong, just trying to gain more of an understanding of what you're reasons are.

[dfarms11]

So by your experience, Jaymo, fungicides pay dividends more than other inputs? I've never used any. I never thought there would be any benefit to it.

[AG_guy]

jaymo instead of me answering ill ask a question. What is in a fungiced that will boost yield ? And have you ever left a untreated test strip to confirm this ??

[mbratrud]

Ag guy over 20% difference on flax sprayed and flax not. real numbers I agree with Jaymo problem has always been there we are just now fixing it.

[Jay-mo]

No, I would not say fungicides are more beneficial then other inputs. If you spend money on good seed, weed control, fertilizer but then skip fungicides you're not going to see the full benefit of your other inputs.

What is in a fungicide? Well Tilt's active is propaconazole, but what does that mean, right?
Its just protecting your plants from disease and allowing them to grow to a more natural maturity, thereby putting more grain in your bin.
I am by no means a high input grower, I am always looking for ways to grow a better and healthier crop for the long-term health and viability of my land.

I don't automatically spray fungicides without scouting, but it seems that more often it pays to spray then not.

[AG_guy]

Jaymo not being a high input farmer has likely worked in your advantage but you just need to decide wether you want to take advantge of that or not.

I am more then willing to talk about all this with you but agriville just isn't the way. It's just gotten to a point it's just a bunch of nonsense. If you want help with crop production we have over 30 years doing this. My boss has looked over at least 10 thousand soil tests actually more like 50 thousand if you can find one farmer that we have done wrong by good luck. maybe we haven't showed the amount of prgress they wanted but we have never screwed anybody. And 90% of the time after the first year and seeing our results your hooked.