Tar Spot Expands Across Upper Midwest

Disease pressure has been high in recent years. For the year ahead, Syngenta Agronomy Service Representative Aaron Kromann points to the disease triangle. “There are three sides; you have the host, which is the crop that we’re planting,” said Kromman. “We have the pest or the inoculum that’s in the soil and then the third component is the environment.” Most of the diseases expected to show up again this year are familiar to farmers, but a few unfamiliar ones could make their way to the Northern Plains. “Tar spot has been a hot topic over the last couple of years. We’ve seen that move through really across the corn growing region all up in the Upper Midwest here in South Dakota, northern Minnesota, and even in North Dakota.”