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Monitoring programs and educational efforts from the LSU AgCenter are among an array of factors that have kept Asian soybean rust from inflicting major harm on the state’s crop.
Experts say those factors are joined by vigilance on the part of farmers and luck with weather.
"You can’t say it’s happened just because of one thing," said LSU AgCenter plant pathologist Dr. Clayton Hollier, who is involved with monitoring and research efforts across the South. "But I’d definitely say a lot of damage has been averted by much better detection and management overall."
The LSU AgCenter has conducted extensive educational efforts aimed at keeping the disease from getting a foothold. It also maintains a network of "sentinel fields" across the state, monitors other areas for signs of the disease and cooperates with other states in monitoring and reporting.
"People have been much more vigilant about scouting for soybean rust and also better about management of all diseases and insects," Hollier said, adding, "So far, those factors, combined with weather conditions that haven’t favored disease development when it could do the most damage, have kept soybean rust from doing a great deal of damage."
When Asian soybean rust was first found in the United States in 2004, officials feared it could devastate the U.S. crop – based on what had been seen in South America after the disease migrated there from its origins in Asia and Africa.
"When we first started talking about Asian soybean rust and looking at Brazil and what happened there, we were talking about 10 percent, 20 percent and up to 30 percent yield losses," said LSU AgCenter economist Dr. Kurt Guidry. "So far it hasn’t had a big impact on our yields."
Of course, the agricultural economist said that doesn’t mean there won’t come a year when the disease gets a foothold and causes more problems. It just means so far the disease has developed later in the growing season and that farmers have been successful in managing it.
"One year we had the disease, but I had growers telling me they still got 40 bushels per acre because the crop already had developed when the disease came in," Guidry said.
That type of "luck" has played a factor, but experts say LSU AgCenter research and educational efforts have helped growers realize the importance and the payoffs of better overall crop management.
"Management of the soybean crop and management of soybean diseases are a much bigger issue for our growers today than they were 10 years ago," Hollier said, adding that’s the message LSU AgCenter research and extension faculty members have stressed the past few years.
Guidry explained soybeans traditionally had been an "in addition" crop for Louisiana farmers.
"Soybeans generally were not the primary crop in the producer’s operation and therefore were not given the same type of focus that the cotton or rice crop, for example, was given," he said. "But now with the advent of soybean rust and with the soybean research and verification program, our producers are much more involved in management of diseases today."
The payoff for farmers from such efforts is pretty clear, according to Hollier and Guidry, who said consistent yield increases, instead of yield losses, for the 2005-2007 growing seasons have meant hundreds of millions of dollars to farmers and the economy.
For example, Guidry pointed out the Louisiana soybean crop has made an economic contribution of more than $626 million to the state’s economy over the past three years, according to the Louisiana Summary of Agriculture and Natural Resources from the LSU AgCenter.
"Just not losing 10 percent to 30 percent of that means a lot of money," he said.
Hollier took the point further during a recent briefing about federal spending on agricultural programs and said the $3.2 million in government dollars invested in detection and the release of information have averted $299 million in potential damage for soybean growers across the country.
"When soybean rust first came in, we were concerned that some areas of our state wouldn’t be able to grow soybeans at all because of the potential yield reductions from the disease," Guidry said.
"But what we’ve seen is that it’s gotten growers much more involved in management of diseases – not just soybean rust, but all diseases – and that’s led to higher yields," he said. "I think the information the LSU AgCenter has put out there about disease management and monitoring, combined with the weather and better prices, has contributed to those increases."–Tom Merrill
(This article was published in the 2008 edition of the Louisiana Soybean & Grain Research & Promotion Board Report.)