Abstract #78

# 78
Effects of foliar fungicide on whole-plant BMR and floury corn varieties at vegetative tassel and reproductive stages of growth.
M. E. Weatherly*1, R. T. Pate1, L. Hedges2, S. Mideros2, G. M. Fellows3, M. Akins4, M. R. Murphy1, F. C. Cardoso1, 1Department of Animal Sciences, University of Illinois, Urbana, IL, 2Department of Crop Sciences, University of Illinois, Urbana, IL, 3B.A.S.F. Coporation, Research Triangle Park, NC, 4University of Wisconsin-Madison, Marshfield, WI.

Fungal disease can have a negative impact on yield, health, and performance of corn plants used for corn silage. The objective of this study was to determine the effect of foliar fungicide (FUNG) application on 2 whole plant corn varieties. Brown midrib (BMR) and floury (FLY) varieties were planted in 6.76 ha (3.38 ha per variety). Treatments were assigned to 16 plots in a completely randomized block split-plot design with 4 replicates per treatment and 0.42 ha per plot. Treatments were: BMR without FUNG (BMR/CON), FLY without FUNG (FLY/CON), BMR with FUNG (BMR/FUNG), and FLY with FUNG (FLY/FUNG). Fungicide (Headline AMP; BASF Corp.) was applied on both varieties at vegetative tassel (VT) stage. Samples of whole corn plants were collected from each treatment at VT and reproductive stage (R5). At each collection, corn was separated into leaves, stalks, flag leaf, and cobs for chemical analysis. Statistical analysis was conducted using the MIXED procedure in SAS (v9.4). No main effects or interactions of treatment were observed for any parameter. Leaves from BMR tended to be lower in CP than FLY (18.3 vs. 19.0 ± 0.23% DM; P = 0.08) and had less NDF (65.1 vs. 66.9 ± 1.15% NDF; P = 0.03). Stalks from BMR were lower in DM content (15.5 vs. 18.3 ± 0.60% DM; P = 0.02) and greater CP (7.3 vs. 6.1 ± 0.23% CP; P = 0.01) than FLY. Stalks from BMR also had lower NDF than FLY (65.2 vs. 70.5 ± 0.67% DM; P < 0.0001). Stalks from FUNG tended to have a greater ash content than CON (7.42 vs. 7.04 ± 0.17% ash; P = 0.08). Cobs from BMR had lower DM content (29.8 vs. 31.0 ± 0.49% DM; P < 0.01) and greater CP (19.3 vs. 17.7 ± 0.40% CP; P < 0.0001) than FLY. Flag leaves from BMR were lower in DM content (28.2 vs 32.5 ± 2.07% DM; P = 0.001) and lower in CP (13.9 vs. 16.4 ± 0.25% CP; P < 0.0001) than FLY. In conclusion, BMR corn had greater stalk and cob CP than FLY and FUNG treated corn tended to have greater ash content than CON.

Key Words: corn plant, foliar fungicide