News

Iowa farmer sees disease pressure despite dry growing season

A north Iowa farmer saw some disease pressure in soybeans despite a dry growing season.

Chris Edgington of Saint Ansgar says white mold was most prevalent.

“But there are a couple others, and that’s hitting the yield pretty hard. But the other fields have been yielding pretty darn good considering the growing season we had.”

He tells Brownfield white mold can show up in soybeans as early as flowering.

“We did have some white mold then. But we also got another resurgence of it when it would’ve been canopy close time because it’s 18 inches to 2 feet off the ground (we saw) another batch of white mold out there.”

Edgington, the newly elected president of the National Corn Growers Association, calls it another opportunity to learn and says hopefully he can figure out what can be done differently to prevent white mold next year.