Urbandale, Iowa
November 5, 2007
As Iowa soybean growers finish
harvesting the 2007 crop, Iowa State University has been
scouting late planted fields for signs of Asian soybean rust.
And they've found it in 14 counties across the state.
Asian soybean rust has been confirmed in 2007 in Adair, Dallas,
Des Moines, Fremont, Hancock, Iowa, Johnson, Lee, Muscatine,
Polk, Pottawattamie, Ringgold, Story and Washington counties.
Although the development of rust in Iowa fields happened too
late in the growing season to cause any real damage, it is a
significant discovery for soybean producers.
“Discovering soybean rust in multiple counties clearly indicates
that the disease reached northern production regions. Data
suggest that the spores reached southwestern Iowa as early as
August this year,” says X.B. Yang, plant pathologist, Iowa State
University.
The discovery of rust in Iowa this year was no great surprise to
some. Checkoff-funded research conducted at Iowa State
University predicted the possibility. Dr. X. B. Yang has been
refining a weather-based computer model to track the movement of
rust spores from known infected locations and predicts where the
disease may develop based on climate conditions. Iowa State
University leads the field in these efforts.
August rains are the likely culprit that sprinkled rust spores
over Iowa soybean fields. When discovered, the disease was in
its very earliest stages of development in most fields with the
exception of Fremont County where disease development had
progressed to 20 percent incidence.
Those scouting for the disease are individuals from the Iowa
Soybean Rust Team First Detectors, a group of 700 highly
qualified crop professionals trained to identify the disease by
Iowa State University through a partnership with the
Iowa Soybean Association
(ISA). Iowa State University and the soybean checkoff began
training First Detectors during the summer of 2004, before rust
was found in the United States. “Soybean producers need to
continue to be vigilant and manage their soybean crop to
optimize yield and profitability,” says David Wright, director
of contract research, Iowa Soybean Association. “Producers
should increase the management of their soybean crop through
increased scouting efforts.”
Online resources for soybean growers include
www.sbrusa.net,
www.planthealth.info,
www.soybeanrust.info
and www.iasoybeans.com.
Checkoff-funded Research on Asian Soybean Rust
The Iowa Soybean Association began investing soybean checkoff
dollars into research on Asian soybean rust in 2002, two years
before the pathogen arrived in the United States. The
association has taken a global approach to finding ways to
minimize yield loss from soybean rust.
ISA’s initial investments focused on finding genetic resistance
to the disease and determining the effectiveness of fungicides
available to manage the disease. In 2002 ISA worked with the
USDA and the United Soybean Board to utilize the disease
containment facility at Fort Detrick, Maryland to screen current
commercial varieties for genetic resistance. We also worked with
the USDA to test the fungicides against soybean rust in
countries like Paraguay, Zimbabwe, and Uruguay.
ISA’s Key Investments
- National Sentinel Plot
Network – the main component of the U.S. safety network
tracks known locations of Asian soybean rust. We have dozens
of dedicated people monitoring Iowa’s sentinel plots weekly.
- Computerized prediction
models – There are several models being developed, but the
one ISA has been funding is the one at Iowa State
University. Dr. X.B. Yang is one of the world’s foremost
experts on Asian soybean rust, working on it since 1989 when
he worked at the USDA’s research facility at Fort Detrick,
Maryland. He collaborates with climatologists at St. Louis
University using climate models to predict the movement of
rust spores from known locations and predict where they
might be moved to and where the disease is most likely to
show up.
- One of our most productive
investments has been an investment in University of Florida
Research station at Quincy, Florida; an investment made
through the North Central Soybean Research Program. USDA
scientists told us that rust will likely show up in Iowa
four years out of 10. So we as a checkoff board needed to
find a way to enable scientists to conduct research on
soybean rust without waiting for it to show up in Iowa.
- Working with the North
Central Soybean Research Program, the soybean checkoff
enabled the University of Florida to allow Midwest
researchers to conduct research at the research station in
Quincy, Florida. As a result more than 50 man-years of
research have been conducted on soybean rust in just two
years.
- ISA has helped Iowa State
University train more than 700 Certified Crop Advisors to
expertly identify soybean rust.
- We invested checkoff
dollars with the USDA to test fungicides against soybean
rust and evaluate carrier volumes for best results. Because
of this research we know that the fungicides available to us
are effective against soybean rust if they are applied at
the recommended rates and at high carrier-volumes (15-20
gpa).
- We have researchers at
Iowa State looking at how one of the four known resistance
genes works. Through this research we may be able to improve
the plant’s resistance to soybean rust. This is long-term
research but we feel it is necessary for the long-term
profitability of Iowa’s soybean producers.
To learn more about ISA,
visit its Web site at
www.iasoybeans.com.
The Iowa Soybean Association
develops policies and programs that help farmers expand profit
opportunities while promoting environmentally sensitive
production using the soybean checkoff and other resources. The
Association is governed by an elected volunteer board of 21
farmers.
Funded by the soybean checkoff |
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