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Timely Information for Soybean Producers

I call your attention to 3 items that are both timely and pertinent at this stage of the soybean growing season.

The first is a publication titled Surge Irrigation Information that is authored by Dr. Chris Henry of the Univ. of Arkansas and Dr. Jason Krutz of MSU-DREC. The content of this article covers “What is Surge Irrigation?”, definitions that are related to the practice, its associated use with Computerized Hole Selection (CHS) such as Pipe Planner, optimum allotted time to irrigate the two required sets, and the best location for surge valves in the irrigation setup. Also included is how to adapt surge irrigation to soil texture conditions in a given field or site to be irrigated with a surge irrigation setup.

The second is an article by Dr. Tom Allen titled Navigating Fungicide Active Ingredients that is posted on the MCS blog site. In this article, Dr. Allen covers the current available fungicide formulations as well as the general classes of active ingredients in the myriad fungicide products. Included in this coverage are the: 1) strobilurin or quinone outside inhibitor (QoI) fungicides (FRAC Code 11); 2) demethylation inhibitor (DMI or triazole) fungicides (FRAC Code 3); 3) succinate dehydrogenase inhibitor (SDHI) fungicides (FRAC Code 7); and 4) methyl benzimidazole carbamate (MBC) fungicides (FRAC Code 1). According to Dr. Allen, the use of fungicides in these various classes should be based on the desired outcome that considers the “preventive” and/or “curative” aspects of the fungicide and the disease(s) that are present or are anticipated.

Finally, Dr. Allen provides a table of Fungicide Expectations that can be used as an aid in making fungicide decisions for soybeans. The information in the table will identify the potential benefit from a fungicide application based on whether or not a fungicide product possesses preventive or curative properties and if the product will provide benefit if applied prior to disease presence.

I encourage you to access the above articles to ensure that the best possible decisions are made when utilizing surge irrigation and applying foliar fungicides to soybeans during reproductive development.

To keep abreast of disease development in soybeans during the current growing season, check the MCS blog site for Dr. Allen’s disease updates such as that posted on June 18, 2017. These updates are usually posted on a weekly schedule during the time of year when diseases are likely to develop.

A final note. As stated in a previous blog on this site, “foliar fungicides should be applied to soybeans in a high-yield environment when diseases are present at yield-limiting levels. Using these products on a regular basis as a yield enhancer is not economically feasible, and will hasten resistance development in fungal pathogens”. Also, some prominent foliar diseases are not controlled by foliar fungicide(s). Click here for a detailed discussion about using fungicides for managing soybean diseases, and here for a detailed discussion about fungicide resistance management.  Click here for a commentary on the possible ramifications from using foliar fungicides for the so-called “plant health” benefit.

Composed by Larry G. Heatherly, June 2017, larryheatherly@bellsouth.net