A farmer and seed dealer asked Boyle County ANR Extension Agent, Jerry Little and grain specialist, Dr. Chad Lee, to look at a commercial cornfield because of problems they were seeing with a particular hybrid they were considering putting in their variety line up to sell next year. The corn hybrid was missing ears on several of the plants in the field. We dug and looked at roots, cut stalks for examination, and we looked at healthy plants as well. Preliminary results showed that the plants missing ears had a fungus on them. We sent samples to the plant disease diagnostic lab in Lexington to confirm the disease. This particular hybrid had not been shown to have susceptibility to this disease before. We helped that farmer and their company identify the problem and update their hybrid information for growers the following season.

Outcomes: Now that farmers can manage for that known disease, on 10,000 acres, they would improve the yield by 40 bushels per acre, and at $3.00 per bushel that is a $1.2 million dollar increase in farm gate receipts.