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MSU finetuning seed treatment use

Research at Michigan State University is using DNA testing in soil samples to determine a farmer’s risk of soybean diseases.

Plant pathologist Marty Chilvers tells Brownfield he’s currently working with sudden death syndrome and soybean cyst nematode.

“To then help in making that prediction of if farmers need to be using a resistant variety and layering on a seed treatment,” he says.

He says several years of studies have tried to narrow down when to use a seed treatment.

“It really is farm field dependent,” he says.  “Ideally what you could try and do is run some non-treated seed next to some treated seed—that would be an ideal test.”

Chilvers also recommends taking stand counts to compare the difference and says cool, wet soil conditions are where the value is usually seen.