Fungicide folly? Farmers disagree about soybean rust
By Nicole Paseka, Journal intern | Posted: Sunday, February 19, 2006
ONAWA, Iowa -- In farming communities, the subject has become as taboo as personal politics or the movie "Brokeback Mountain."
The word is whispered among farming buddies at coffee shops and the local co-op.
No, it is not money. And it is certainly not sex.
It's fungicide.
With concerns of Asian soybean rust spreading north to the Midwest and decimating countless acres of soybean plants, many farmers prepared for the worst last spring.
They purchased gallons of fungicide, fine-tuned their sprayers, and prepared for the plague. Others followed news reports of the disease's progress and scouted their fields for the first signs of the deadly spores. Some just prayed.
The plague never arrived.
Across the Midwest today, gallons of fungicide with looming expiration dates are resting in quiet storage sheds. Some farmers spent thousands of dollars on fungicide that may never touch a soybean leaf. The fungicide has an expiration date of two to three years.
That is why it is rarely talked about. Farmers do not brag when they have invested heavily in a product they may not need. But other farmers are glad they were prepared for the rust and plan to invest heavily in fungicide again this season.
There is not a lot of agreement on the subject, which is another reason fungicide talk is taboo.
Asian soybean rust could easily reach the Midwest this summer or in future years, experts say. There is just less fanfare about the disease this growing season.
"My fear is that it might show up and people aren't looking for it," said Joel DeJong, an Iowa State University Extension field specialist in Le Mars, Iowa.
There is about a 15 percent chance of Asian soybean rust reaching Iowa in 2006, said Elwynn Taylor, professor of agronomy at Iowa State University and an expert on soybean rust.
The soybean rust first arrived in the continental United States in 2004, terrifying farmers who had seen photos of Brazilian soybean crops ravaged by the disease.
By 2005, the disease had been found in nine U.S. states and 138 counties but had not spread north to the Midwest.
"It will get here. It's just a matter of time," said Marv Hausman, a farmer who lives near Onawa, Iowa.
If soybean rust spreads to the Midwest, "in a week's time, your crop is history," he said.
There are two types of fungicide -- preventative and curative. Many farmers invested in both during last year's scare.
Hausman sprayed preventative fungicide on all 1,500 acres of his soybean ground last year. He said he plans to apply fungicide again this spring.
The fungicide cost Hausman about $6.30 per acre, but in some areas, the product and its application can run up a mind-numbing bill of $12 per acre.
Although soybean rust did not arrive last summer, experts were not crying wolf. And they're advising farmers not to let their guard down this season.
The disease reached Beaumont, a town in southeast Texas, last year.
"That's the location of greatest risk to the Corn Belt," Taylor said. "The winds often blow from Beaumont to Iowa, to Illinois, and storms often follow that path in the summer."
Although this infection poses no immediate risk, "if the rust does survive the winter in that locality, it does enhance the Midwest risk for 2006," Taylor said. "Patchy frost did occur in December that may or may not have destroyed the rust in that area. Barring another freeze near the east coast of Texas, we have to assume that the rust did persist there."
Roger Rand, a farmer and chemical dealer from Salix, Iowa, said he sold fungicide to three farmers last year.
"I had some fungicide lined up but I didn't ever really purchase any (for my own use)," Rand said.
He said the fungicide sold for "around $10 to $12 an acre, depending on which (brand) you use."
Rand said he has not heard much about soybean rust or fungicide this year.
"I think it was overblown last year, and people probably aren't going to pay much attention to it this year," he said.
Lee Westergaard of Sloan purchased fungicide from Rand.
"The chemical companies way over-hyped it," Westergaard said. "We tested it in four different places, and not one of them had a yield increase."
Chemical manufacturers promised the preventative fungicide would result in a yield increase regardless of whether Asian soybean rust arrived, Westergaard said.
"I think the chemical companies tried to take advantage of the situation and tried to hype a yield increase that wasn't there," he said.
Tom Oswald, director-at-large of the Iowa Soybean Association and a farmer from Cleghorn, Iowa, said farmers need to "keep their ear to the ground" this season.
"It's most important that you have a strategy that you can get the products when you need them. That's that approach I would take," Oswald said.
"This is nothing to sleep on, because it still could surprise us."
The word is whispered among farming buddies at coffee shops and the local co-op.
No, it is not money. And it is certainly not sex.
It's fungicide.
With concerns of Asian soybean rust spreading north to the Midwest and decimating countless acres of soybean plants, many farmers prepared for the worst last spring.
They purchased gallons of fungicide, fine-tuned their sprayers, and prepared for the plague. Others followed news reports of the disease's progress and scouted their fields for the first signs of the deadly spores. Some just prayed.
The plague never arrived.
Across the Midwest today, gallons of fungicide with looming expiration dates are resting in quiet storage sheds. Some farmers spent thousands of dollars on fungicide that may never touch a soybean leaf. The fungicide has an expiration date of two to three years.
That is why it is rarely talked about. Farmers do not brag when they have invested heavily in a product they may not need. But other farmers are glad they were prepared for the rust and plan to invest heavily in fungicide again this season.
There is not a lot of agreement on the subject, which is another reason fungicide talk is taboo.
Asian soybean rust could easily reach the Midwest this summer or in future years, experts say. There is just less fanfare about the disease this growing season.
"My fear is that it might show up and people aren't looking for it," said Joel DeJong, an Iowa State University Extension field specialist in Le Mars, Iowa.
There is about a 15 percent chance of Asian soybean rust reaching Iowa in 2006, said Elwynn Taylor, professor of agronomy at Iowa State University and an expert on soybean rust.
The soybean rust first arrived in the continental United States in 2004, terrifying farmers who had seen photos of Brazilian soybean crops ravaged by the disease.
By 2005, the disease had been found in nine U.S. states and 138 counties but had not spread north to the Midwest.
"It will get here. It's just a matter of time," said Marv Hausman, a farmer who lives near Onawa, Iowa.
If soybean rust spreads to the Midwest, "in a week's time, your crop is history," he said.
There are two types of fungicide -- preventative and curative. Many farmers invested in both during last year's scare.
Hausman sprayed preventative fungicide on all 1,500 acres of his soybean ground last year. He said he plans to apply fungicide again this spring.
The fungicide cost Hausman about $6.30 per acre, but in some areas, the product and its application can run up a mind-numbing bill of $12 per acre.
Although soybean rust did not arrive last summer, experts were not crying wolf. And they're advising farmers not to let their guard down this season.
The disease reached Beaumont, a town in southeast Texas, last year.
"That's the location of greatest risk to the Corn Belt," Taylor said. "The winds often blow from Beaumont to Iowa, to Illinois, and storms often follow that path in the summer."
Although this infection poses no immediate risk, "if the rust does survive the winter in that locality, it does enhance the Midwest risk for 2006," Taylor said. "Patchy frost did occur in December that may or may not have destroyed the rust in that area. Barring another freeze near the east coast of Texas, we have to assume that the rust did persist there."
Roger Rand, a farmer and chemical dealer from Salix, Iowa, said he sold fungicide to three farmers last year.
"I had some fungicide lined up but I didn't ever really purchase any (for my own use)," Rand said.
He said the fungicide sold for "around $10 to $12 an acre, depending on which (brand) you use."
Rand said he has not heard much about soybean rust or fungicide this year.
"I think it was overblown last year, and people probably aren't going to pay much attention to it this year," he said.
Lee Westergaard of Sloan purchased fungicide from Rand.
"The chemical companies way over-hyped it," Westergaard said. "We tested it in four different places, and not one of them had a yield increase."
Chemical manufacturers promised the preventative fungicide would result in a yield increase regardless of whether Asian soybean rust arrived, Westergaard said.
"I think the chemical companies tried to take advantage of the situation and tried to hype a yield increase that wasn't there," he said.
Tom Oswald, director-at-large of the Iowa Soybean Association and a farmer from Cleghorn, Iowa, said farmers need to "keep their ear to the ground" this season.
"It's most important that you have a strategy that you can get the products when you need them. That's that approach I would take," Oswald said.
"This is nothing to sleep on, because it still could surprise us."
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