Where does my yield come from?

Protect your yield building leaves

Not all plant parts are made equal and not all cereal crops build yield with the same leaves. Some leaves carry more value to your yield than others. This can play a huge role in how you manage and control for disease in your wheat or barley crop. When it comes to cereal leaf disease, defending your yield-building leaves and plant parts is the number one goal. You may have had a great start to the season with a high number of kernels and spikes ready to be filled with energy from photosynthesis. However, if your yield-building leaves are covered in scald, tan spot, stripe rust, or other leaf disease, your crop’s capacity to fill that grain is greatly diminished. Use this diagram to guide your decisions on how to protect your crop. If you are beginning to notice disease showing up on your yield-building leaves and weather conditions are conducive for that disease to thrive, you will likely want to protect that leaf and subsequently, your crop yield, with a fungicide. If disease is only really present in the tillering leaves and weather is not conducive for disease growth, impact may not be great enough to warrant a fungicide application.

Always follow the label.