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Nebraska Soybean Board offering free SCN testing through Nebraska Extension

The Nebraska Soybean Board and the University of Nebraska are partnering to help farmers protect their fields from soybean cyst nematode, the leading cause of yield loss annually for U.S. soybean farmers. 

Extension pathologist Dylan Mangel says the collaboration will once again offer free soil testing.

“It’s a pretty easy program. I tell people, if you can get soil in a bag or a container and get it to us, we’ll tell you how many nematodes you have in there.”

He says soil samples can be sent directly to the UNL Plant & Pest Diagnostic Clinic.

“We’ll start processing them right away, typically within two weeks. This time of year we could get in several hundred of them rapidly, so it might take a little bit longer,” he says.

Mangel says farmers should take appropriate steps to manage the pest.

“At 4,000 nematodes, you really need to start watching what you’re doing, rotating to a non-host crop. Fortunately, corn is a non-host crop in Nebraska, so a good corn/soybean rotation is really going to help manage that,” he says.

Mangel says farmers should also rotate varieties to avoid resistance.

Farmers can submit samples to the UNL Plant & Pest Diagnostic Clinic, 1875 N. 38th Street, 448 Plant Sciences Hall, Lincoln, NE 68583-0722.