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Surprising diseases show up in north Iowa soybean fields

An extension agronomist covering northern Iowa is surprised by disease pressure in soybeans given the dry growing season.

Angie Rieck-Hinz is with Iowa State University.

What is up with all the soybeans, right? Besides there are soybeans that are naturally maturing and turning color, we’ve had a lot of diseases pop up in the last couple of weeks in our soybean fields.”

She tells Brownfield from the road it’s difficult to differentiate between crop maturity and the presence of disease.

“So I think I would maybe pop out into those soybean fields and take a look at what’s going on out there, and maybe use what’s happening this year to make some future decisions.”

Rieck-Hinz says white mold is more prevalent compared to recent years.

“It doesn’t seem like it should be a white mold year as dry as it’s been in places. We’re also seeing white mold in my opinion a lot further south in Iowa.”

She says sudden death syndrome, brown stem rot, and phytophthora root rot are also being found in soybean fields.