Staying Ahead of Soybean Disease
Many farmers know that an ounce of prevention can be worth a pound of cure. Since its introduction in 2004, pathologists have been monitoring soybean rust in Mississippi both on soybeans and kudzu to keep tabs on the spread of the disease.
“We’re looking pretty hard at kudzu patches we know have susceptibility to rust as well as soybeans,” says Billy Moore, Ph.D., emeritus professor of extension plant pathology at Mississippi State University.
Soybean rust has been detected in four counties in Mississippi this year. While scouting, Moore observed rust on soybeans in Jackson County and on kudzu patches in Adams, Wilkinson, and Stone Counties. A close soybean relative, kudzu serves as an additional host for the disease, which aids in the detection of the disease.
“We don’t anticipate much damage from rust,” Moore says. “We had some scattered locations about five years ago that did have rust and it did reduce some yields in some localized areas. However, we’ve never had the losses that were initially predicted when rust came into the United States.”
According to Tom Allen, MSU pathologist, farmers are most likely to spot these diseases in their fields: Septoria brown spot, frogeye leaf spot and taproot decline.
“Those three are the biggest problems right now,” Allen says. “Most of the diseases have been really quiet up to this point.”
Allen says that no disease reports at this point should affect harvest though he rarely makes predictions.
“Disease conditions can change rapidly,” Allen says. “It really depends on the environment, but if it remains the same for the remainder of the season, I don’t foresee any major problems developing.”
Travelling the state of Mississippi scouting for disease, Moore says in the many years he has been a pathologist, this appears to be one of the best crops he has ever seen.
Stay tuned to the Mississippi Crop Situation blog for disease updates as well as up-to-date soybean rust information available at: http://sbr.ipmpipe.org/cgi-bin/sbr/public.cgi.