When you visit dealer field days this time of year, it is the perfect time to see for yourself what is available for disease resistance packages.
So while you’re checking tip-fill and counting rows, take a good look at the leaves to see what diseases may be present. Ask the grower or dealer if any fungicides were applied to the plots. If the answer is “no” and you can see some disease on some of the hybrids, this is a good chance to do your own evaluation and compare hybrids.
For instance, these photos were taken on the day of harvest in one of our state BMR trials (Figures 1, 2 & 3). These were not treated with any fungicide. There are some very visible differences to the naked eye. However, we will see if the varying levels of disease in the hybrids affect the bottom line once the yield data comes in.
Figure 1. Differing levels of Grey Leaf Spot affecting two adjacent BMR varieties.
Source : psu.edu