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Red crown rot impacting Illinois farmers

A Pioneer agronomist says red crown rot is having a major impact on some soybean growers.

Matt Montgomery says his west central Illinois territory is ground zero for the relatively new fungal disease.

“We’ve seen yield losses 40 to 60%.”  He says, “We’ve seen some real devastating, you know, one offs where yield gets dropped down into the teens even, especially in some of those areas where the disease has been established for a while.”

He tells Brownfield this season has shown it can pop up anywhere and affect both early and late planted soybeans.

“I think we’ve kind of put to rest the idea that this is just a tough, marginal soil disease.”  He says, “It expanded its footprint and showed that it can begin to subtract yield on some really prime flat black ground.”

Montgomery says research shows some seed treatments can help slow the disease, but choosing varieties with a high overall disease tolerance is currently the best protection.

“You’re going to want to make sure that you’re really building a really robust package when it comes to other diseases, not so much that they’re going to reduce red crown rot, but it’s such a devastating disease that I think part of this game is reducing stress on stress,” he says.

He says more will be known about the 2024 impacts of red crown rot as the harvest continues.

Matt Montgomery – Pioneer Agronomist

Photo courtesy of Illinois Soybean Association