News

Red crown rot awareness

The agronomy education lead at Beck’s Hybrids says midwestern soybean growers need to familiarize themselves with red crown rot.

“It looks a lot like SDS, and it can cut yields 40 to 60%.”

Matt Montgomery says the disease is being identified in more areas, especially in Illinois, Missouri, and Kentucky.

“If it lands on you, it’s a really big deal and we want you to take it seriously and you need to be aware of it.”  He says, “If it’s not in your part of the world yet, we want you to take a deep breath and make sure you get it identified correctly, before we just proclaim everything that goes wrong with the field as red crown rot.”

He tells Brownfield while it can be confused with sudden death syndrome, red crown rot shows some unique symptoms.

“Down toward ground level, look for little, tiny red fruiting structures about the size of a pinpoint, and nothing else really does that,” he says.

Montgomery says the best-known ways to limit red crown rot’s impact is using certain seed treatments, and to lessen other stress factors in fields where the disease is present.

Beck’s and Montgomery are hosting a free webinar February 20^th to help spread awareness of the disease.  More information can be found HERE.

AUDIO: Matt Montgomery – Beck’s Hybrids