INVESTING CHECKOFF DOLLARS
DEMANDING ATTENTION NEMATODES STEALING BUSHELS, REVENUE BY AARON PUTZE, APR
W
ith soybean prices under continued pressure and farm inputs remaining stubbornly high, farmers are looking for every opportunity to boost yields and income this growing season. One opportunity may be difficult to see but is right under their noses, stealing productivity and sales. “Nematodes are eating your profits,” says farmer Ron Heck of Perry. “If they eat five bushels per acre a year, that means they’re consuming an entire crop every 10 years.” The scourge of soybean cyst nematodes (SCN) has been well documented. But the pest’s negative impact to the bottom line is increasingly ignored and underestimated, argue those in the know. “A dirty little secret is that there was a time in the 1990s when managing the nematode in the short term was easy,” says Iowa State University (ISU) professor and nematologist Greg Tylka. “Well, that was yesterday.”
Counts on the rise Fast forward 30 years and nematode reproduction and populations are on the rise. “There are two types of farmers in the Midwest,” Tylka says. “Those who are worried about SCN and those who should be.” Heck and Tylka offered their warnings and call-to-action during a panel discussion focused on the income-robbing pest held earlier this year at Commodity Classic in Orlando, Florida. Joining them in the conversation were Auburn University plant pathologist Kathy Lawrence, Albert Tenuta, plant pathologist for the Ontario (Canada) Ministry of Agriculture and farmers Kip Roberson and Pat Duncanson of North Carolina and Minnesota, respectively. Rising populations and resistance spells trouble for farmers and the soybean industry, panelists said.
Greg Tylka, Iowa State University
26 | SPRING 2019 | IASOYBEANS.COM
“The nematode is adapting to and overcoming resistance while soybean yields of SCN-resistant varieties are trending lower,” says Tylka, who also serves as director of the Iowa Soybean Research Center at ISU. “Added together, the impact could be a loss of 10-15 bushels per acre. That’s profound when considering this situation is quite likely typical for farmers throughout the Midwest.”
