By VICKI JOHNSON
Ohio Correspondent

CUSTAR, Ohio — A new pest called the Western bean cutworm is entering Ohio’s agriculture scene and farmers in the northwestern part of the state should start scouting for it.

That was the main message of entomologist Andy Michel during Field Crops Day last week at the Northwest Agricultural Research Station of the Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center.
“It’s been a pest out in the West,” said Michel of OARDC and OSU Extension. Since 2000, he said it’s been traveling east from Iowa.
And this year he’s been catching more in traps - 75 bugs as of Wednesday. He said storms are helping to move them eastward on wind currents.

“The majority of them have been in the northwest part of Ohio,” he said. “We don’t think we have an established population here yet.”
He suggested farmers set traps and if they find one of the pests, they should start scouting - especially in fields that have several different stages of corn development.

If a field reaches 5-8 percent infestation, he said it’s time to treat it. “Timing is critical here,” he said. “You want to get them before they get to the silk.”

Although there haven’t been any eggs or larvae found yet in Ohio, he said farmers should be watching. Any suspected infestations should be reported to a local OSU Extension educator. While talking about best management practices for corn diseases, the main message from plant pathologist Dennis Mills was using fungicide as needed and not as a preventative measure.

“Fungicides are not a magic bullet,” he said. “Think about what a fungicide is. It’s there to kill fungus. That’s it.”

He said there are no plant health benefits, despite claims otherwise by company salespeople.

“Fungicides really didn’t pay in any of the trials,” said Mills, with OARDC and Ohio State University Extension. “Don’t just throw some fungicide on if you’re using a pesticide.”

In Ohio, he said gray leaf spot and Northern leaf blight are the two main fungal diseases to be concerned with.

If a farmer has a problem that needs a fungicide, he said follow the label carefully to apply it at the optimal stage of fungal growth.
“Timing is critical,” he said. If you miss it by a week or so, you might as well pour water on it,” he said.

He also said full rate is always needed.

“Half rate of the fungicide doesn’t do anything except empty your pocketbook,” he said.

Regarding soybean rust, Mills said none has shown up in Ohio this year.

“We’re probably out of the woods as far as soybean rust for this year,” he said.

At the field day, Robert Mullen of OARDC, OSU Extension and OSU’s School of Environmental and Natural Resources, talked about nitrogen management.

He said OSU has moved away from yield-based recommendations for nitrogen application.

“We’ve moved to an average,” he said. “You’re going to have to adjust to that. That’s the game we have to play right now production agriculture.”

In the past, he said nitrogen was inexpensive and it made sense to apply a lot to make sure the crop had enough.

“That’s not the case anymore,” he said. “There is a larger risk of overapplication - economically. There has always been a risk environmentally.”

Harold Watters of OSU Extension’s Champaign County office and Extension’s Agronomic Crops Team, discussed weed resistance management.