The price of corn plays a big role in determining whether a treatment or practice not only pays for itself, but offers a return on investment, notes Steve Gauck, an agronomy manager for Beck’s based near Greensburg, Ind. The higher the corn price, the more likelihood of seeing a higher net return, he adds.

The Beck’s Practical Farm Research team started an experiment in 2020 to determine if fungicide would still pay when corn was planted late. Corn was planted in three different windows: April 16 to 30, May 1 to 15 and May 16 to 31. Corn planted at the different dates either received fungicide or did not.

Based on three-year results, fungicide applied on the earliest-planted corn netted an ROI of $20.09 per acre; fungicide on corn planted May 1 to May 15 yielded an ROI of $23.59 per acre, and fungicide on the late-planted corn produced an ROI of $39.09 per acre.

“Based on three-year results, if planting is delayed, it still pays to invest in the crop,” Gauck says. “There was a payoff for applying fungicide.”