2004 Year in Review

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Asian Soybean Rust Advice

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service has confirmed Asian soybean rust in the continental United States. The disease was found near Baton Rouge in Louisiana State University soybean plots. What will that mean to soybean producers in Illinois now? For this fall, the disease will not impact us here in Illinois. However, producers and agriculturalists now have ample forewarning to learn or review scouting, sampling, detection and management plans for the 2005-growing season. Much preparation in our state has already been directed to dealing with the disease if and when it shows up in Illinois and the Midwest. You can find the entire State Soybean Rust Management Program Plan on the web at Management Program Plan Soybean rust is a very serious leaf disease of soybean. It can cause significant defoliation of the plant and subsequent loss in yield and even death of the plant. The disease has spread through 90% of the soybean growing areas of South American in just two years. Our adapted soybean varieties are all susceptible to this disease so early detection and identification will be critical to mitigating yield losses. Significant effort is ongoing in screening for resistance to the disease that can be incorporated in our adapted varieties. While in the long run the aim would be to manage the disease with resistant varieties, they are not developed yet. Early detection and fungicides are our only management tools available now. How would the disease get to Illinois? Well there are a few possibilities: first, someone who was in an infested field in another location may inadvertently introduce it to a field because they had spores on their clothing. Another likely scenario is natural infestation. Like other rusts you are more familiar with, such as corn or wheat rust, airborne spores also spread soybean rust. So, it may naturally spread by winds from the southern United States to the Midwest. Given the serious yield loss potential from infection by this fungus we need to have a jump on it before it gets here, that’s what the planning has been all about. We are trying to reduce potential damage and have in place a good and appropriate response to the disease when it arrives. As a rule, leaf diseases of soybean have caused minimal yield losses in Illinois. We generally see Frogeye leaf spot or bacterial blight. For the most part no one gets too astonished by these diseases and they cause little or no loss. This will significantly change when Soybean Rust makes its way to our area. We cannot predict when the Asian soybean rust may show up in Illinois. Spending time this winter learning about the disease, how to scout for the disease, how to sample, where to send samples, and how to implement an appropriate fungicide spray program will be time well spent. It will be necessary to maintain a vigilant detection and management program. University of Illinois County Extension Unit offices throughout the state are equipped to take your samples for pre-screening analysis with our Distance Digital Diagnostic Imaging online plant diagnostic service. Numerous winter meetings will address the topic and a significant portion of the 2005 Illinois Crop Protection Technology Conference January 5-6 in Urbana will be devoted to soybean rust issues, to register online go to Registration Form or call (217) 333-2880 or use the toll-free number (877) 455-2687

by Editor, theCity1.com
November 24, 2004