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Sudden Death Syndrome an issue this year
Early planting and wet weather in the growing season have contributed to Sudden Death Syndrome (SDS) and other fungal diseases in soybeans in the Midwest. Carl Bradley, plant pathologist with the University of Illinois, says there’s little a farmer can do once it’s present…and yield loss will vary.
“It really just kind of depends on how severe it is in the field. From published research on SDS, yield loss can be anywhere from as low as maybe five-percent, maybe even lower, and, maybe even up as high as almost 50%,” Bradley says.
With SDS and white mold – which has also been detected in some fields – Bradley says growers need to plan ahead, “People make variety decisions based on a lot of things and, of course, everybody knows the number one thing is yield and that’s always extremely important. (But), sometimes you need to kind of change your priorities a little bit based on the risk of disease and how frequently you’re seeing a disease.”
Both SDS and white mold live in the soil and the potential is always there. In some cases, Bradley says, foliar fungicides can help with white mold but not with Sudden Death Syndrome.
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