DISEASE SCOUTING IN THE DIGITAL ERA

Digital platforms offer new approaches to identify diseases and time fungicide applications to save time and protect yield.

- Adrienne Held

In a season of tight margins, every dollar counts, and every decision carries weight for the season's outcome. "In a year with lower commodity prices, we have to really protect our crop, and we have to capitalize on everything that we can do to maximize yields," says Bryan McMurtrie, a regional sales manager with Taranis.

One decision farmers grapple with every season is whether to apply a fungicide and the ideal application timing. It's a balancing act to minimize disease damage while providing residual protection during critical plant stages that impact yield and plant health. Digital scouting platforms, such as Taranis, as well as Climate FieldView and Intelinair, offer tools to proactively manage crop diseases.

Climate FieldView

Field View provides satellite imagery that can help identify potential issues such as crop disease. Generated from vegetation images, scouting images are displayed on a five-color scale, easily identifying areas with the most and least biomass.

"Green doesn't always mean good and red doesn't always mean bad," says Andy Folta, U.S. product marketing manager for FieldView. "Red just indicates less green and is the place to prioritize scouting. For example, if a field went from 2% low biomass to 3.4% low biomass from one image to the next, we'll send an in-app or email push saying this field had a really big change in biomass. There might be a reason that you or a trusted advisor should scout to see what's happening in the field."

Josh Curry raises corn, soybeans, wheat, and hay and also raises cattle and hogs near Alpha, Illinois, south of Moline. "Those your maps are fun because you can scroll through all acres, whether it's 200 acres or 2,000," says Curry, who has used FieldView for seven years. "You can pinpoint fields that need attention and talk to your agronomist you work with, or go yourself."