Soybean diseases like white mold, frogeye leaf spot, and sudden death syndrome are cutting into yield and farmer profit, especially with changing weather patterns. Farmers are using more fungicides and biologicals than ever, but it’s unclear which products and strategies will provide good return-on-investment. Through this project, researchers will conduct field trials across seven states comparing high and low-intensity management to help farmers improve ROI.
Field trials across seven states will compare high-intensity farm management to low-intensity management, and will include using seed treatments, fungicides and other disease control products. The team will test fungicides and biological products to find what works best against soybean diseases. They will develop tools that can help farmers calculate their ROI for disease control products and survey farmers as to how they make decisions for disease control as well as feedback on ROI tool usage.
Through this research, farmers can learn what disease management tools actually improve their ROI, and learn where high-input usage makes sense. Farmers will be able to use decision-making tools that factor in yield potential, seed and input costs. The team will provide up-to-date data at Extension meetings, field days and outreach resources.