Evaluation of foliar fungicide use to improve yield and quality of BMR corn silage

Abstract

Foliar fungicides may be used to control corn diseases but little or no local or state data is available to show their effectiveness. In particular there is concern that brown mid rib (BMR) corn hybrids are more susceptible to diseases and correspondingly may have more mycotoxins in the harvested forage. Results from this project suggest that applying a foliar fungicide to BMR corn may provide a modest increase in yield (.4 tons per acre) but not enough yield to pay for the cost of the application (1.24 tons per acre).