Crop Stress Relief Management for Profit

Causes of crop stress lurk everywhere. Harsh weather, tough soil conditions and pest pressures steal yield potential throughout the season.

Fortunately, effective crop stress management recommendations abound. Select the right seed. Scout frequently. Apply inputs on time.

Tyler Harp, fungicide technical product lead for Syngenta, highlights another effective crop stress management recommendation with years of data backing it up.

“Make an in-season fungicide application a standard agronomic practice, rather than just a situational decision,” he says. “More than a decade of large-scale research shows that Syngenta’s next-gen fungicides provide value beyond disease control.”

Harp explains that fungicides with ADEPIDYN^® and SOLATENOL^® technologies both inhibit respiration in pathogens and slow senescence, or leaf browning, in crops.

“We call these our Cleaner and Greener* fungicides,” he says. “Treating row crops with Miravis fungicide brands, including Miravis Neo, Miravis Top and Miravis Ace, as well as Trivapro fungicide, mitigates crop stress and protects yield potential.”

Cleaner: Fighting Disease

According to Harp, “cleaner” refers to keeping crops free of disease, as the active ingredients in these fungicides deliver potent, long-lasting disease control.

As pathogens, biotic or living stressors, attack crops, the active ingredients in Miravis^® fungicide products and Trivapro^® fungicide interfere with their cell respiration, a critical function. Controlling these pathogens quickly prevents or minimizes disease infections.

Syngenta formulates these fungicides to stay on leaves for several weeks, so as new pathogens move into fields, the crop remains protected. Without disease lesions to interrupt, leaves carry out more photosynthesis.

These fungicides also move through the plant fighting pathogens. Keeping ears, pods and grain heads cleaner protects crop quality and yield.

Greener: Managing Abiotic Stress

Harp says “greener” refers to how these fungicides support healthier, more efficient crops.

He explains that a growing understanding of ADEPIDYN and SOLATENOL technologies reveal how fungicides help crops mitigate abiotic, or environmental, stresses like heat or dry conditions. These active ingredients not only attack pathogens but can also preserve yield potential under stressful conditions.

Late-season environmental stress triggers senescence, natural late-season leaf browning. Delaying senescence with these fungicides keeps leaves greener and capturing light energy longer. In late crop-growth stages, that energy often goes into grain fill. Thus, crops have more time to maximize yield potential.

Transpiration is the process where plants release water vapor from their leaves through pores called stomata. Water also evaporates through open stomata. Plant-health fungicides reduce transpiration and water loss, improving water and nutrient use efficiency.

“For high-yielding ‘racehorse’ corn hybrids that don’t conserve water efficiently, reducing transpiration can make all the difference.,” Harp says. “I’ve observed trials where several days after fungicide application, untreated corn has rolled leaves, while leaves in treated corn remain fully expanded.”

As a result of extended greening and more efficient growth, crops tend to pack on more yield for a more profitable and efficient harvest. Healthy crops grow stronger stalks that lead to less lodging and higher-quality grain.

Profitable: Return on Stress Mitigation Investment

Does managing both biotic and abiotic stress really pay? According to Harp, 80% of the time, the yield increase with fungicide treatments more than pays for the product and application.

“Our data shows that on average, over a five-year period of time, four out of those five treatments will be profitable¹,” he says. Because of the amount of stress that is typically seen in the field, plant health fungicides give an average yield increase of 6 to 8 bu/A over untreated in soybeans¹ and 15-18 bu/A in corn, regardless of disease pressure².

It doesn’t stop there. “Of those four profitable years, one of those often sees a hit-it-out-of-the-park yield response of 10 bushels or more in soybeans¹ or 20 or more bushels in corn²,” he adds. “A year like that can pay for all five years of your fungicide application.”

It’s about shifting your thinking from one season to year-over-year profitability. “That’s where plant health fungicides can really help you maximize your yield potential — when they’re used as part of standard agronomic practice rather than a situational decision,” says Harp. “Our data over several seasons demonstrates that using these products every year can help increase grower profitability over a three-to-five-year period by consistently providing more yield on the farm.”

Find the value of Syngenta Cleaner & Greener fungicides in your region at BoostYourBushels.com.

*No claim is being made herein about the environmental attributes of any product. References to “cleaner and greener” indicate plant health benefits (e.g., less disease and increased crop efficiency and productivity) from foliar fungicides and the visible color of the plants.

*Product performance assumes disease presence.

¹ Data from 475 on-farm grower/strip trials from 2018-2022. Locations: AR(58), KS(23), IN (13), MO (46), NE (47), OH (14), IL (96), IA (74), WI (30), MN (49), SD (24). Application Rates: Miravis Neo or Miravis Top fungicide at 13.7 floz/A applied at R2-R3 soybean.

² Data from 567 on-farm grower/strip trials from 2018-2023. Locations: MN (142), WI (37), KS (35), NE (10), MO (13), IA (108), IN (16), IL (100), OH (19), SD (63), AR (24). Application Rates: Miravis Neo or Trivapro fungicide at 13.7 floz/A applied at VT – R1 on corn.