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Farmer on alert for soil-borne soybean diseases

A farmer in eastern Missouri says he’s concerned about soil-borne soybean diseases with the excessively wet spring.

“We may end up having to use more fungicides this year than we have in the past.”

Terry Schwoeppe, who farms in Franklin County, tells Brownfield he’s monitoring for phytophthora.

“The soil is staying so wet for so long and it’s not getting, from where I’d like to see, the oxygen in the soil. It’s not a typical year for us.”

Schwoeppe says his soybeans were planted into mature wheat and rye cover crops and it’s been difficult for the sunlight to reach the ground to dry.

Schwoeppe says he’d rather use micronutrients to keep plants healthy instead of applying multiple rounds of fungicides, but that might change.

The farm has received between two to three inches of rain since the start of June and Schwoeppe says he’s still trying to plant soybeans.

“If the rain is coming, I guess we’ll stick the soybeans in the ground and hopefully, they’ll pop up through the slit in the mud,” he says. “We didn’t escape from getting stuck. I’m tired of pulling chains and cables.”

Schwoeppe raises corn, soybeans, hay, cattle, horses and chickens.