February 4, 2025 • 38 mins
Our conversation sheds light on the complex life cycle of white mold, with an emphasis on its overwintering capabilities and infection process. We explore how environmental conditions, such as dense canopies and high organic matter, fuel its development and discuss emerging research on managing root infections through seed treatments. By understanding the unique behavior of white mold, you can craft effective strategies that mitigate its drastic impact on yields. Eric also shares valuable insights into the role of light wavelengths in apothecia development, adding another layer to our understanding of this resilient pathogen.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Welcome to Spilling the Beans, the podcast that
spills the secrets to unlockingyour soybean farm's full
potential.
Every Tuesday, your hosts, billBackus and Jeff Mueller, dive
into expert strategies andinnovative solutions that will
help you boost your yields andmaximize your returns.
Whether you're a seasonedgrower or new to soybean farming
, we're here to help you succeed.
Let's get started.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Hello and welcome to another episode of Spilling the
Beans.
I'm Jeff Mueller and I'm BillBeckes, and thanks again for
joining us as we dive into theworld of soybeans, covering
various topics and providinginsights to the soybean industry
.
Bill, thanks for joining metoday.
How's your day going?
Speaker 3 (00:41):
Oh, just great, Jeff.
You know looking forward togetting here, getting through
January, getting into Februaryand really getting to that point
in time to really.
You know, it's kind of hard tobelieve that a full month has
already gone by and here we are,you know, getting close to
February.
So crazy times and time flies.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
I'll give you the number two Two months till we
start planting.
Two months, two months till westart planting Two months Two
months here it comes.
Here, it comes, it comes up.
The older I get, it seems, thefaster it comes up.
So now, today, again, we'repart of this series, talking
about more of specific diseasesor things that we see in our
soybeans.
And you know, last week wediscussed Phytophthora root rot,
(01:20):
the week before we went intoIDC or high ph that they were
dealing with, and today wedecided we're going to tackle a
little bit, uh, white mold, uh,that we're going to deal with
today.
So sclerotina white mold thatwe want to deal with, um, we
want to talk about some of itsearly signs, just some of the
biology behind it.
What do we see?
What are some of the effects,what are some of the strategies
(01:41):
we can utilize to minimize thedamage?
And, in essence, our goal, asalways, is to make sure that
we're bringing things to theproducer or the growers to help
increase the return oninvestment from a per acre
standpoint.
So splirotina white mold isnumber one stem disease in
soybean production.
(02:02):
Used to not even be somethingthat we even talked about here
in Nebraska and over the lastfour years it is now something
I'd say probably, even maybe thelast three years.
It's something that is one ofthe first things on that they're
having a conversation with.
They want to know well how'sthat variety handle white mold
from that standpoint.
Really, it's only second tosoybean cyst nematode and
(02:25):
overall losses in soybeans.
You know what is going on.
Why is it so impactful?
Why are we seeing white moldbecoming so much more prevalent
and it's expanding out so muchmore than we have in the past?
What are you noticing, bill, orwhat are some of your thoughts
from that?
Speaker 3 (02:44):
Yeah, no, great, great question, Jeff.
And yeah, there's no question,this thing is becoming a pest,
right, this is a pain in ourtail and, as agronomists spend a
lot of time, you know, talkingto customers and talking to our
people selling the products, andyou know we've got a tech
service rep on today that'sgoing to join us and help us
understand some, some otherapproaches to help us mitigate
(03:07):
and control white mold.
So, so, as we go back but I'mgoing to go back several years
and kind of start, you know,back in the day when I was I was
, you know, very, very young andand the families, you know
we're out there walking beans.
Right, good old time of walkingsoybeans.
And you're out there walkingthrough them and you've got your
bean huck or you've got yourspade, or you've got your shovel
(03:28):
or whatever you're carryingaround corn knife, whatever
you're using to chop those weedsout.
You know what was the.
Did you ever walk beans, jeff?
Speaker 2 (03:36):
Oh yeah, that's how I got my toy tractor, toy combine
.
Every year that was our paymentfor walking beans.
Speaker 3 (03:41):
Exactly that was our payment for walking beans
Exactly.
So think about what was goingon when you were walking beans.
Think about the time you knowit was.
You were early in the morning.
Things were damp, canopied, youknow we.
You know we didn't really do alot of 30 inch rows or 15s.
We did a lot of drilled beansback in the day, right, that's
kind of what.
A lot of things were going on.
(04:02):
So we had a lot of canopy, wehad a lot of things going on.
So we really just had aconducive environment.
You know, for that, becausewe're trying to grow as many
beans as we possibly could.
You know, fast forward to today, what are we trying to do?
We're trying to grow as manybeans as we possibly can.
We're trying to figure out howto get higher yields.
So what are we're doing?
Different things in these highyield production, you know, to
(04:30):
maximize production.
That's what our whole podcastis about is maximizing
production.
So white mold and high yieldproduction kind of go hand in
hand.
You know when I think about,you know, family farm.
I think we've got it on ourfarm.
We've got a lot of no-till,we've got a lot of hog manure,
we've got very high organicmatter.
You know we don't have the soilthat you have in Nebraska, jeff
, we've got some good Iowa soilright that we've got going on.
And you know my neighbors whereI live now.
(04:50):
You know they've got someinsane things going on here
where we've got very highproductive type environments and
we're really just going afterthat.
You know we're in maturitiesthat we've never seen white mold
before.
And here we are, like we said,you know, three years into this,
you know the last three years,I should say all of a sudden,
bam, more and more white moldshowing up.
(05:11):
So I think you know one of ourguests hopefully helped us out a
little bit on that as well heretoday.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And then you talk about too.
You know I think back to thosewalking those bean days old, the
old jeans out there and thebeans are up here to the chest
and soaking wet all morning andhoping your brother doesn't cut
you with the corn knife when youhe goes you grab a weed or
whatever.
But you know one thing alsothat's happened a lot that's
occurred in those many yearssince we were walking beans to
(05:39):
now is what was the expectedyield level back that time
versus where it's at now?
And again that's all helped addto some of this that we're
dealing with.
So you know we talk about theamount of bushels that we've
increased in beans or wherewe're going after that high
yield.
You know, one thing that I liketo think about or go from is
(06:00):
what's the impact?
You know we try to ask thisquestion every time when we're
on our podcast.
But you know what really is, orwhat's the total impact of
sclerotina white mold, onsoybeans to the US economy.
I mean, what's it cost farmers?
What's a relative ballpark?
It's costing us every year inlosses that we're seeing from
white mold damage.
Speaker 3 (06:20):
Yeah, yeah, in preparation for the episode here
today, I looked this one up ononline and the best guess that
we can find, basically from 2023data, is roughly about 30
million bushels per year.
You know, take that times 10,you get about 300 million
dollars overall, basically tosoybean production, and I would
estimate that's probably higherthan that based upon what you're
(06:42):
seeing in areas that wetypically haven't seen this
disease before.
So with that, I guess I'll goahead and bring in Eric Schultz.
Eric is our tech service repthat both Jeff and I had the
privilege to work with inNebraska and Western Iowa, but
he has since moved up to thegreat state of Minnesota.
So again, he's a North DakotaState University alum.
(07:04):
So another North Dakota State,another Bison.
So they got a football team, isthat right?
Speaker 4 (07:11):
Oh, just a halfway decent one.
Yeah, yeah that's good, that'sgood.
Speaker 3 (07:15):
So he's in Minnesota, originally from Minnesota.
So, eric Schultz, welcome tothe stage here.
Again, thanks for being heretoday.
Speaker 4 (07:24):
No thanks for having me on.
You know, white mold is a topicI hold pretty near and dear to
my heart.
And what do they call that?
Saying you know?
Moving on up, you know that'skind of what I did, going from
the Nebraska-Iowa life.
You know moving on up LiterallyFor an entire state, when the
slogan is the good life you know.
(07:45):
They got to convince you ofthat as soon as you get across
the border.
So well, that's all the ribbonI'll give for you guys.
Today, I got nothing againstNebraska and Iowa.
Lots of good times, lots oflots of good times and lots of
good beans there too, soappreciate, appreciate being on.
Speaker 3 (08:03):
Absolutely, absolutely so, eric.
So so tell us about what.
What is Scarlatina white mold?
Why are we so concerned aboutit on the impact of soybean
production here in the U?
S, in the Midwest?
You know in your geography whatis going on and what is it.
Speaker 4 (08:20):
Well, and I think you touched on some of what I would
say are the biggest points orthe most important points with
white mold.
When you mention, you know,high-yielding soybeans attract
white mold disease pressure andI think that's what we've been
running into for a number ofyears.
And you're talking about itmoving to new areas and that's
(08:41):
what we continue to see as well.
I mean central Minnesota andyou get into North Dakota, the
Red River Valley, I mean theseare all historical areas of
white mold pressure, southernMinnesota, and then you get into
northern Iowa, I mean thisgeographical range.
There's a lot of high-yieldingsoybeans and that's why one of
(09:02):
the reasons why it's such animportant disease and such a big
issue is just because we'retrying to grow high-yielding
soybeans and exactly what we'retrying to grow is attracting
this disease, which can be quitedevastating.
I say the other side of whitemold at least.
That makes it so important, atleast to me, is that when you
have it, it hardly is just ayield nibbler.
(09:26):
You know we talk about brownspot in soybeans as kind of a
yield nibbler 10%, 5% septoria,brown spot in the lower canopy
White mold.
You know you very rarely haveit in a position where it's only
going to take 10% of your yield.
It's not really out there inthose pockets of a field taking
(09:47):
five to 10 bushels.
It might only leave you withfive to 10 bushels.
That's one of the things I thinkof when I think about the
importance of white mold andthis disease.
One of the most importantaspects of it and I keep saying
one of, because there's a lot tobe had here but is that once
you have this disease in a field, it's really never going away.
(10:10):
You're going to be battling thepotential to have white mold in
some capacity in that fieldevery time you grow soybeans and
I know you don't deal with itvery much in Iowa or in kind of
central or eastern Nebraska, butin Minnesota we also grow dry
edible beans, which is anothersignificant host for sclerotinia
(10:34):
and canola in North Dakota.
So there's a lot of issues thatgo along with crop rotation,
with some additional crops thatmake it worse.
But all in all, those are thethings I think of when I think
about white mold and itsimportance.
You're always going to have it.
Once you do have it and whenyou do have it.
Those pockets they could besmall, they could be large, but
(10:54):
whatever that pocket size is,you might be talking about
hardly getting any bushels offof that pocket at the end of the
year.
Speaker 2 (11:01):
No, those are great points.
You know what is the life cycleof sclerotinib white mold.
You know what's our life cyclewe deal with with that disease.
Speaker 4 (11:10):
Yeah, so well, I'll start with the visual, the most
visual part of it.
In a soybean field and thiswould happen most often in
August, or you could see it inlate July in some worst case
scenarios.
But if you're walking throughbeans in August and you're in R3
soybeans, r4 soybeans and youtalked a little bit about that
(11:30):
canopy up to the chest, or yougot dense canopy, a dense field
up to the chest, or you gotdense canopy, a dense field but
you're walking through there yousee wilted plants, or even
wilted just trifoliates, or apetiole and a trifoliate.
It's brown, it's shriveled,it's wilted.
Or you get whole plants and thenyou pull that plant out you may
find quite the fuzzy myceliumthat would be the white kind of
(11:55):
growth from white mold thatoccurs on the stem and in the
pods, primarily on a plantthat's infected with white mold.
So that's the visual, the mostvisual part of white mold as a
disease in the field.
But the problem with white moldis it has a full disease cycle.
It overwinters as the sclerotia, which are black, really hard,
(12:18):
rat-dropping-like shaped bodies,fruiting bodies, those are
formed from white mold later inthe season and then they're in
your soil for easily over 10years.
I think a lot of the olderliterature even had 7 to 10
years and then the newerliterature says about 10 years
is minimum, so not too far offoverall.
(12:40):
But then that overwinteringoccurs and then from that black
structure in the spring or inthe early summertime there are
mushroom-like structures thatgerminate and grow out of that
black sclerotia.
And these mushrooms are calledapothecia and those are what
shoots ascospores.
(13:01):
And those ascospores infect thesoybean plant and goes after
some of the older senescingflowers in a plant.
That's kind of the number oneavenue of infection when it
comes to those ascospores.
But that's a quick peek at thedisease cycle.
Tried to make it quick at least.
Speaker 2 (13:18):
No, no, no.
It was very thorough, as alwayswith you, eric.
But you know, one of thefollow-up questions I had is you
know, once you have you knowhow long will the inoculum last
in the soil?
And you've answered that, onceyou have it, it's there, right,
(13:39):
you're not going to get rid ofit.
From that standpoint.
We talked about the spores, youknow get into the senescing
older flowers.
That's how they enter into thatsoybean plant and start with
the white mold.
But can that mycelium, can itinfect through the soybean roots
, or is that infection justmainly done through the
flowering, the dead flowers onthe plant?
Speaker 4 (13:57):
Well and primarily those ascospores that shoot from
the apothecia mushrooms.
That's a primary, I will say,avenue of infection.
However, again back toliterature comparisons very
recently I believe, in theliterature they found that there
are infections for sclerotiniathat occur through the roots.
(14:18):
So, albeit it's kind of a newerconcept, but seed treatment
opportunity for protectingagainst white mold.
Now I'm not going to commentanything on active ingredients
or effectiveness, but I will saythat, based on conceptually
potential infection through theroot, seed treatment could
provide another avenue ormanagement avenue.
(14:40):
So great question, jeff, onthat, for the mycelium or for
the infection point.
Speaker 3 (14:46):
Yeah, eric.
So let's go a little bitfurther here and we're kind of
getting some details here.
So we think about, you know,red and blue, white wavelength,
and you know we see the cloudydays, we see the smoke, you know
coming down from Canada duringthat time frame, all those
different things.
So I've heard about the lightwavelength, the blue versus red,
and no light for apotheosisdevelopment.
(15:07):
You know what is this?
Speaker 4 (15:08):
and kind of.
Why is it?
Speaker 3 (15:09):
important to understand it.
Speaker 4 (15:12):
Yeah, yeah, and I mean it's quite the the question
and quite the concept,especially when you want to talk
about it to a soybean grower aswell.
And, bill, I'm sure you, youknow that as well, and those
listening to this, this podcastas well, make make no mistake.
This is that's quite the deepside of this, but it's.
It's rather easy to understandif you just think about the
(15:33):
canopy and you think aboutwhat's going on underneath that
canopy or through that canopy,because everybody can picture
sunlight, everybody can picturea soybean canopy, whether it's
30-inch row spacing or 15-inchrow spacing, covering up or
closing completely, and thelight interception of that
canopy and what's left of thatlight that gets through the
(15:57):
canopy to the soil is whereyou're going with this question.
When it comes to blue versus redand correct me if I'm wrong,
bill, but the blue light is whatthe apotheosia likes the most
of.
It will not be triggered togerminate near as much with the
(16:18):
red, but the blue light, whichwould be the light that's
filtered through the canopy,would be what drives that
apothecia.
So I guess, again connectingthis to the soybean canopy, the
sooner you have a soybean canopy, hypothetically or conceptually
again, the sooner you get asoybean canopy, hypothetically
or conceptually.
Again, the sooner you get, youknow more of that blue light
(16:40):
that's being driven to the soil,that could trigger more of
those apothecias.
Speaker 3 (16:45):
Yeah, spot on.
So you know that's some newstuff we picked up here about a
year ago and we just want tomake sure we call that out here
today, trying to understand.
That is because it's reallygoes back to canopy and then
also it goes back to some cloudcover and goes back to some
smoke that's coming from Canadadown.
That influences basically ourlight and what we try to figure
(17:06):
out.
Why did we have white mold?
Why?
didn't we have white mold eachand every year, so definitely
something that digging in alittle further.
So one thing we want to makesure to come out on this, on
this episode.
So thanks for that.
So, jeff, go to you.
Speaker 2 (17:18):
Yeah, no, no good point.
So you know, recently you knowyou've been in what Minnesota
for, you've moved back.
Was it about two and a halfthree years, Three, three
seasons?
Yeah, yeah.
So before that, when you werean avid Cornhusker fan, when you
were living in Nebraska, youknow, we, we didn't really talk
about white mold at all.
Remember it wasn't a big thingyou talked about maybe a little
(17:41):
bit in Northeast Nebraska, butreally in a lot, a lot of areas
it was non-existent.
We didn't really hit on it awhole lot.
Now, all of a sudden, we haveit and it's showing up in areas
which is it's considered it's inareas that it's considered not
to see it in this Midwest.
Why are we seeing it move in?
Where did it come from?
Why, all of a sudden, are wehaving it here in Nebraska when
(18:02):
we've never had it before?
What's moved it in or what aresome of the aspects of why it's
becoming more of an issue for usover here to the west, for
something that we never reallydealt with before or worked with
before?
Speaker 4 (18:15):
Right.
Yeah, you're exactly right.
I mean there were pockets innorth central Nebraska.
I recall maybe in centralNebraska a little bit, but
northeast Nebraska was theposter child down there for
white mold and you know back toits life cycle, because I think
that's one place to start onthis.
It's one of the places I canstart at least because I can't
(18:37):
speak to climate patterns ormoisture patterns that are going
through.
You know, at least in any kindof academic sense.
But when it comes to thesurvivability of this there's no
bounds.
It's not like you only have twoyears worth of viability from
the fungal pathogenoverwintering in the soil where
there's a stopping point orthere's guardrails here where
(18:59):
you don't have to worry about itafter two years or four years.
Even this stuff just survives.
So if there's any opportunityfor it to spread physically,
it's going to.
If you remove any amount ofsoil you know even a cup of soil
from a field or from an area ofa field that has some of those
sclerotia in that cup of soil.
You know even a cup of soilfrom a field or from an area of
a field that has some of thosesclerotia in that cup of soil
(19:20):
and you put that in anotherfield.
It's going to be there and,like I think Bill, you mentioned
this, I mentioned this but onceyou have it, it's always going
to be there.
So I think that physicalmovement is very important and
that's one of the drivers andyou got to go back to the
disease triangle as well, forall diseases but host, pathogen
(19:43):
and environment.
So I think, starting with thepathogen and new areas, jeff, I
think that's how that hashappened most prominently, I
would guess and then, over thecourse of time, that one
sclerotia that may have gottenthe field all of a sudden turns
into 10, all of a sudden turnsinto 10 million.
So and the environment's goingto drive that.
(20:05):
So I think it's there'snumerous factors to that, but
there really isn't anyrestrictors because of the fact
that stuff just survives.
Speaker 2 (20:15):
Yeah, that's a great point.
You think about how manyfarmers, producers, clean off
their equipment when they leavea field, and then you think
about how many of them you knowit used to be if you drove 10
miles down the road, you farmeda long way away from your house.
Now it's nothing for them todrive 100 miles and move
equipment and to farm and itjust makes things hop, skip and
(20:37):
jump that much more.
So that's a great answer onthat one, bill what do you got?
Speaker 3 (20:41):
Yeah, yeah, so to follow up on that one just a
little bit, you know thesclerotia basically can be about
the size of a seed too.
So if you don't have reallyclean seed you could potentially
have it come in.
You know your seed source.
So, again, making sure you buyseed from a reputable source,
basically to make sure you'vegot good, solid, you know clean
(21:04):
seed.
So that's one piece of it.
So, eric, you know a few morethings here.
So you know white mold.
So we talked about the pesthere.
So every time on this episodewe kind of talk problem,
solution, solution.
So so let's kind of get to thesolutions and let's talk a
little bit about control methods.
So so, what are some of thecontrol methods, uh, that we can
do?
Basically, uh, that you wouldadvise to our listeners?
Speaker 4 (21:27):
yeah, and you know I'll.
I'll mention a couple of cropprotection related things first
and foremost, and I mean there'sluckily there are, you know, a
handful or two of things thatcan be done to combat white mold
.
So, make no mistake, thisdisease can be quite devastating
(21:47):
, but there are options, thereare things that you can grab and
pick from and combine togetherin order to combat this, which
is nice.
It's nice to have that.
It's nice to talk aboutsolutions when it comes to
something.
But, crop protection-wise, weedcontrol matters when it comes
to white mold.
I think about lamb's quarters orpigweed species or velvetleaf.
(22:10):
They are all hosts for whitemold infection.
And, like I mentioned in someof the crop rotations I deal
with, there's dry edible beansand soybeans, so those are both
hosts.
So those weed species are notnecessarily on the same playing
field as hosts, as dry ediblebeans or soybeans, but they're
still hosts.
(22:30):
They still carry that part ofthe disease cycle with them.
They still carry that part ofthe disease cycle with them.
So controlling these weeds insoybeans or in corn or whatever
plants or crops are in therotation is going to be
important and it's somethingthat can be done.
The other side of cropprotection.
I would say I deal with themost would be a fungicide
application in the earlyreproductive stages of soybeans
(22:54):
and for BASF that hashistorically been the Boscalid
active ingredient and Endurafungicide and making that
application.
You know I've seen applicationsanywhere from a day before R1
through the beginning part of R3be successful and this is
(23:14):
across a wide geography.
But it's got to be earlyreproductive and that's a very
effective control method ormanagement method for white mold
.
Speaker 3 (23:28):
Yeah, cool.
So how about some cropprotection, specific products we
got anything at BASF that wecan use and specific products.
Speaker 4 (23:35):
We got anything at BASF that we could use.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I meanthe best control from BASF
fungicide or really on themarket and it has been proven
for quite a few years would beEndura fungicide.
Endura has done a fantastic jobthrough the years and I
mentioned already the activeingredient is boscalid, but this
active ingredient is trusted on, you know, a plethora of crops
(23:59):
that have sclerotinia infections, whether that is soybeans or
dry edible beans or canola, forinstance All crops that are
highly susceptible to white moldinfections that boscalid is
applied in the form of some BASFfungicide that's available for
that crop.
So Endura fungicide would farand away be the go-to option for
(24:22):
white mold management.
Speaker 3 (24:24):
How about anything new?
Anything new in the pipeline.
Speaker 4 (24:28):
Oh, there is one BASF has been working on for a
handful of years now.
It is a premix of Endura plusBASF's newest triazole chemistry
or active ingredient, revisol,fungicide, and the product is
going to be called Zarina,that's with a Z Zarina, endura
(24:50):
plus Revisol in a premix, and sothat product.
Again, it features the activeingredient that brings the
heaviest punch, the best controlin Boscalid from the Endura,
and then it also featuresanother with Revisol that does
bring some suppression, someminor level of control of white
mold, and then also some otherfoliar disease control as well
(25:12):
in soybeans.
As you know, we usually don'tdeal with only one issue out in
the soybean field at a time.
Speaker 3 (25:19):
Yeah, very good, very good.
So when can we expect thatproduct?
I guess that's probably allinformational for this podcast,
but when can we expect that tohit market for our customers
that they can access that?
Speaker 4 (25:30):
Yes, I believe BASF is targeting the 2026 field
season or use season for thatproduct.
But there should be plenty ofopportunities.
I mean, we've talked aboutwhite mold and geographies, but
in the upper Midwest, in theMidwest, there should be plenty
of opportunity in 2025 to talkto your local retailer or BASF
(25:52):
representative about Zarinafungicide and there should be
something experimental going onin all these target geographies
for white mold.
Speaker 3 (26:01):
Yeah, no, that's excellent, that's excellent.
So so, variety selection, youknow we definitely have that.
You know, going forward too,right?
So that's one big piece of thepuzzle.
You know we think about rowspacing.
You know, what would you say onrow spacing and seeding rate?
What would your advice be, fromkind of some cultural practices
for our listeners to do?
Speaker 4 (26:20):
Well, I would say, at least at the forefront, is
balancing this out, because ifyou put all your eggs into
managing white mold, you mightbe missing out on you know the
high yielding practices thatcould outweigh it because you
could implement strategies.
As I said, you've got a basketof choices here what makes sense
(26:42):
for your operation and whatmakes sense for your
historically your field, or youcan still go after the highest
yield while also managing forwhite mold, and I will say that
maybe the perfect management ofwhite mold might not be the best
management for high yieldingbeans.
So, row spacing, you could saywider rows are going to give you
more opportunity to have alower level of white mold
(27:05):
infection.
If you do have 15 inch rowspacing, for instance, dropping
that seeding rate down.
Bill, I'm not sure what's inyour latest research, but I've
known kind of down around that100,000 seeds per acre mark for
15-inch row spacing.
But those are the two things Ithink of would be.
(27:26):
You know, 30-inch rows yes,they're wider, you have more
opportunity.
15-inch rows you're going towant to drop that seeding rate.
But what do you think aboutdropping a seeding rate on a 30
inch row space?
Speaker 3 (27:38):
Yeah, no, that's.
You know we got.
We got lots of concerns aroundthat.
You just got to make sure youpick your variety correctly,
right?
So we want to dig back throughthat and understand you know how
we're going to get there.
And yeah, we can lower them,but we got to make sure we got
earlier.
So lots of good stuff, lots ofgood ideas there with all that.
(27:59):
So, but yeah, good stuff.
I'll turn it back to you, jeff.
Speaker 2 (28:03):
Yeah, yeah, no great great conversation there, guys.
So we're getting, we're goingto wrap it up for the day,
basically is where we're at Ericand just wanted to find out.
Speaker 4 (28:23):
Do you have any?
You know you have anything elseyou want to discuss or you have
any final parking comments thatyou would like to leave for the
listeners of today's podcast?
Well, I think I'd probably burnthrough enough of my word count
as it is, huh, but I'll say,you know white mold, when it
does show up, it's a pretty bigdeal.
So doing one or two things cango a real long way towards not
only targeting high yields still, but also managing
appropriately for white moldwhatever the pressure looks like
(28:45):
in a specific field.
So I'd say a lot of the reasonwhy I talk mostly on Endura
fundicide is that it allows forthe most flexibility and variety
selection also allows for themost flexibility with some of
the other management options orpractices that could be
incorporated.
So no, then that'd be.
(29:06):
It Really appreciate the time.
Thanks for having me on withyou guys today.
Speaker 2 (29:09):
Absolutely Bill.
Anything to add before we?
Yeah, of course I've gotsomething.
Speaker 3 (29:14):
Yeah, I've got something.
Of course I do here at the end.
So we talked about Endura.
So what kind of rate do weapply and when do we apply it?
What's the targeted time to goafter white mold and how early
or how late?
What do we do with?
Speaker 4 (29:28):
it.
The use rate for Endura that Iwork with in central and
southern Minnesota is betweensix and eight ounces per acre.
It is a dry product.
So when I do say ounces I don'tmean fluid ounces, literally
ounces, but six to eight ouncesdepending upon that pressure,
(29:50):
historical pressure, and thentargeting R1 or R1 plus you know
seven days or so, or R1 plus,you know seven days or so.
There is some validity,depending upon the year, at
looking at an early R2 growthstage application.
But predominantly in throughthe years, sometime in that R1
growth stage is when thatapplication should take place.
(30:13):
For optimal timing it has gotto be a preventative application
of the fungicide for white moldcontrol or for best opportunity
for control.
So, and you know, we have toget coverage, excellent coverage
down in the canopy we mentionedwhere this infects the nesting
flowers, for instance, and whereit starts in the lower part of
(30:36):
the canopy.
So making sure that pressure isup there at 50 PSI, for
instance, having a coarsedroplet size, applying 15 GPA,
those are all very important,very significant factors to a
successful fungicide application.
Not just that choice when itcomes to Enduro fungicide, but
(30:58):
great questions, bill, on that.
Speaker 3 (31:00):
Yeah, no, very good, very good, and then definitely
recommend following it withanother fungicide for other
foliar diseases.
What would you say there?
Speaker 4 (31:09):
Yeah, there is some opportunity when it comes, for
you know if you need to comeback with something that also
has white mold activity whetherthat's suppression from Preaxor
or Revitec fungicides or if youneed one good, heavy hit on
white mold and then coming backwith something at the R3 to R4
(31:31):
growth stage that's going tosignificantly boost yield and
provide outstanding plant healthbenefits, a product like
Revitec or Veltema at thattiming would be.
They both would be excellentchoices, but it's again, it's
going to be dependent upon thesituation and what that you know
, what that white mold wants todo or has done in a specific
(31:53):
field.
Yeah, no, very good Thanks.
Speaker 3 (31:56):
Eric, thanks again for joining us today.
Speaker 2 (31:58):
Yeah, thank you very much, Eric.
Appreciate you taking the timeand we'll be catching you here
one of these days in the fieldagain, so have a good one, my
friend.
Yeah, you too.
Speaker 4 (32:08):
Thanks again, guys.
Speaker 2 (32:09):
Yep, stay warm.
Yeah, yeah, well, bill, wowAgain heard a lot of information
, a lot of things aboutSclerotina white mold.
You can see why Eric'sbasically our resident expert
when we're talking about it fromthere.
You know what things did yougarner from what we talked about
(32:32):
and some of the points that hemade that could really help be
implemented by some of ourfarmers and our producers to
help them minimize some of theimpact that we see from
sclerotina white mold.
Speaker 3 (32:44):
Yeah, I think the main thing is everybody's going.
Why do I have it Like we talked, and where did it come from?
I haven't had it ever and alsonow I have it right.
So I think it's definitely.
I think, as you mentioned, uh,cleaning the combine, as eric
mentioned, cleaning the combine,you know, especially if you
know you've got a field that youhad it in, you know, take some
time to stop and clean thatcombine before you move fields.
(33:06):
I think that's going to be ahuge thing to minimize the
spread is.
You know, as I mentioned, makesure you got high quality seed,
make sure you don't have thesclerotia basically snuck
through with that seed cleaningprocess.
You know we think about the lifecycle I mean, what a life cycle
.
And you think overwintering.
Well, it's winter.
It's sitting there right nowjust waiting, waiting for its
time to shine and pull yieldback.
(33:27):
So I think that's a big part ofit.
You know, I think when youthink about Endura, you think
about the new product that we'vegot coming, zarina, you think
about everything around that,what that brings to the table.
I think BASF we're full ofinnovations and I think that's a
big piece of that puzzle andthen what we do on the seed side
.
Jeff, you and I spend a lot oftime understanding soybean
(33:49):
varieties, and understandingthat too are really some big
pieces of that puzzle.
There's a lot of things thatyou can do to.
You know, maximize yield, butyou don't want to go for one
pest, like Eric said it.
Well, make sure you don't onlymanage for white mold, because
you're going to miss out on somepotential high yield
environment where it doesn'tshow up as much.
It doesn't have the rightenvironment.
(34:09):
So that's kind of the keytakeaways that I have here today
.
How about you?
Speaker 2 (34:14):
Yeah, yeah, you key takeaways that I had here today.
How about you?
Yeah, yeah, you know, it'sabout making sure you know you
don't want to combat it too badand then not get your maximizing
your yield out there.
Because really, what is whitemold?
It's known as a high productiondisease, right, that's, you
know.
We're doing a lot of thingsfrom that standpoint, knowing
that there's some agronomicpractices that we can do out
there.
Maybe it's cut population backa little bit.
(34:34):
Maybe, instead of a narrow rowand we've got a field that has a
history of white mold issues,maybe we go, maybe a little bit
of a wider row, maybe there'ssome other things, maybe earlier
plant we can do.
So we have some managementstrategies.
The biggest take home point isis once you have it, you're not
going to get rid of it.
So if you've seen it and youdon't see it for a couple of
years, doesn't mean that it'sleft.
You still have to keep that inmind.
(34:54):
And one thing that I think iscritical that I tell producers
all the time and retailers is ifyou know you have a field of
white mold, make sure youposition that to be the last one
you harvest, or after youharvest that or done anything in
that field.
You need to clean out thatequipment Because, especially at
combine those ratppings, as he,as he said the correct way they
(35:20):
won't get cleaned outcompletely.
They'll sit in the bottom andyou get to the next field and
you'll you'll shivvy them outthe back and boom, there you go.
Now you got it back in yourfield.
So just being proactive that,if you know you have it, being
very proactive there to makingsure you can reduce the spread
and minimize some of the damagecomes from that's really going
to help that return oninvestment for that farmer going
forward.
(35:40):
So yeah, yeah, so.
Speaker 3 (35:42):
So let me jump in there real quick.
So as I think about you know wekeep referring back to our g by
e, by m, yield triangle,genetics, by environment, by
management you think about thegenetics, you think about the
environment that we've created,you think about the management
aspects that we have here.
So one other thing I wanted tomake sure that came out in this
episode was relative maturity.
So you know, earlier beans foryour relative maturity that have
(36:05):
a shorter flowering period, youknow will have the typically a
little bit less time frame thatthey're going to have the
infection to be able to hit themthrough those decaying blossoms
.
You know fuller season beanswill typically have a lot more
opportunity.
So one other tactic to consider,you know, if you have that, is
maybe consider going a tickearly on.
Your relative maturity for yourarea would be one other thing I
(36:28):
would advise to consider.
But again, don't do it to justdo that because you might give
up some yield.
So there's something to thinkthrough there as you put that
all together.
So again, a very interestingepisode, a lot of good stuff
here.
Jeff, thanks again for hosting,thanks for your time and I'll
turn it back to you?
Speaker 2 (36:43):
Yeah, absolutely, and thank all of you for joining us
today on this episode of Spillon the Beans.
We invite you to download theGrow Smart Live app for more
resources and share this podcastwith other growers.
So with that, me and Bill saythank you and make it a great
day.
Speaker 1 (36:59):
Thanks for joining us on Spilling the Beans, where
every episode gets you one stepcloser to maximizing your
soybean profitability.
If you found today's insightsvaluable, subscribe and leave us
a review on your favoriteplatform.
Download the Grow Smart Liveapp for more resources and share
the podcast with other growers.
See you next week with moreexpert tips to help you grow
(37:29):
smarter and achieve the bestyields yet.
Elivo, Vault, IP+, Relenia,Priaxor, Liberty, Ultra are
registered trademarks of BASF.
Nemosphere, Zorina and Voraxorare trademarks of BASF.
Enlist, Enlist One, Enlist Duoand Enlist E3 are registered
trademarks of Corteva AgritionsLLC.
The transgenic event in EnlistE3 Soybeans is jointly developed
(37:52):
and owned by Corteva AgritionsLLC and MS Technologies LLC.
Citavo is a registeredtrademark of MS Technologies and
exclusively distributed by BSF.
All other trademarks are theproperty of their respective
owners and use of any suchtrademark does not imply any
affiliation with or endorsementby its owner.
Always read and follow labeldirections Before mixing
components.
Always conduct a compatibilityjar test.
Always consult respectiveproduct labels for specific
mixing instructions.
The most restrictive labelapplies, not telling.
Fastax CS is a restricted usepesticide.
(38:13):
Nemasphere, zorina and Voraxorare not registered and not
available for sale.
This information is providedfor educational purposes only
and is not intended to promotethe sale of this product.
Any sale of this product afterregistration is obtained shall
be based solely on the EPAapproved product label and any
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The views expressed by BASFemployees and guests are their
own and do not necessarilyreflect the views of BASF Grow.
Welcome to Spilling the Beans, the podcast that
spills the secrets to unlockingyour soybean farm's full
potential.
Every Tuesday, your hosts, billBackus and Jeff Mueller, dive
into expert strategies andinnovative solutions that will
help you boost your yields andmaximize your returns.
Whether you're a seasonedgrower or new to soybean farming
, we're here to help you succeed.
Let's get started.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Hello and welcome to another episode of Spilling the
Beans.
I'm Jeff Mueller and I'm BillBeckes, and thanks again for
joining us as we dive into theworld of soybeans, covering
various topics and providinginsights to the soybean industry
.
Bill, thanks for joining metoday.
How's your day going?
Speaker 3 (00:41):
Oh, just great, Jeff.
You know looking forward togetting here, getting through
January, getting into Februaryand really getting to that point
in time to really.
You know, it's kind of hard tobelieve that a full month has
already gone by and here we are,you know, getting close to
February.
So crazy times and time flies.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
I'll give you the number two Two months till we
start planting.
Two months, two months till westart planting Two months Two
months here it comes.
Here, it comes, it comes up.
The older I get, it seems, thefaster it comes up.
So now, today, again, we'repart of this series, talking
about more of specific diseasesor things that we see in our
soybeans.
And you know, last week wediscussed Phytophthora root rot,
(01:20):
the week before we went intoIDC or high ph that they were
dealing with, and today wedecided we're going to tackle a
little bit, uh, white mold, uh,that we're going to deal with
today.
So sclerotina white mold thatwe want to deal with, um, we
want to talk about some of itsearly signs, just some of the
biology behind it.
What do we see?
What are some of the effects,what are some of the strategies
(01:41):
we can utilize to minimize thedamage?
And, in essence, our goal, asalways, is to make sure that
we're bringing things to theproducer or the growers to help
increase the return oninvestment from a per acre
standpoint.
So splirotina white mold isnumber one stem disease in
soybean production.
(02:02):
Used to not even be somethingthat we even talked about here
in Nebraska and over the lastfour years it is now something
I'd say probably, even maybe thelast three years.
It's something that is one ofthe first things on that they're
having a conversation with.
They want to know well how'sthat variety handle white mold
from that standpoint.
Really, it's only second tosoybean cyst nematode and
(02:25):
overall losses in soybeans.
You know what is going on.
Why is it so impactful?
Why are we seeing white moldbecoming so much more prevalent
and it's expanding out so muchmore than we have in the past?
What are you noticing, bill, orwhat are some of your thoughts
from that?
Speaker 3 (02:44):
Yeah, no, great, great question, Jeff.
And yeah, there's no question,this thing is becoming a pest,
right, this is a pain in ourtail and, as agronomists spend a
lot of time, you know, talkingto customers and talking to our
people selling the products, andyou know we've got a tech
service rep on today that'sgoing to join us and help us
understand some, some otherapproaches to help us mitigate
(03:07):
and control white mold.
So, so, as we go back but I'mgoing to go back several years
and kind of start, you know,back in the day when I was I was
, you know, very, very young andand the families, you know
we're out there walking beans.
Right, good old time of walkingsoybeans.
And you're out there walkingthrough them and you've got your
bean huck or you've got yourspade, or you've got your shovel
(03:28):
or whatever you're carryingaround corn knife, whatever
you're using to chop those weedsout.
You know what was the.
Did you ever walk beans, jeff?
Speaker 2 (03:36):
Oh yeah, that's how I got my toy tractor, toy combine
.
Every year that was our paymentfor walking beans.
Speaker 3 (03:41):
Exactly that was our payment for walking beans
Exactly.
So think about what was goingon when you were walking beans.
Think about the time you knowit was.
You were early in the morning.
Things were damp, canopied, youknow we.
You know we didn't really do alot of 30 inch rows or 15s.
We did a lot of drilled beansback in the day, right, that's
kind of what.
A lot of things were going on.
(04:02):
So we had a lot of canopy, wehad a lot of things going on.
So we really just had aconducive environment.
You know, for that, becausewe're trying to grow as many
beans as we possibly could.
You know, fast forward to today, what are we trying to do?
We're trying to grow as manybeans as we possibly can.
We're trying to figure out howto get higher yields.
So what are we're doing?
Different things in these highyield production, you know, to
(04:30):
maximize production.
That's what our whole podcastis about is maximizing
production.
So white mold and high yieldproduction kind of go hand in
hand.
You know when I think about,you know, family farm.
I think we've got it on ourfarm.
We've got a lot of no-till,we've got a lot of hog manure,
we've got very high organicmatter.
You know we don't have the soilthat you have in Nebraska, jeff
, we've got some good Iowa soilright that we've got going on.
And you know my neighbors whereI live now.
(04:50):
You know they've got someinsane things going on here
where we've got very highproductive type environments and
we're really just going afterthat.
You know we're in maturitiesthat we've never seen white mold
before.
And here we are, like we said,you know, three years into this,
you know the last three years,I should say all of a sudden,
bam, more and more white moldshowing up.
(05:11):
So I think you know one of ourguests hopefully helped us out a
little bit on that as well heretoday.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And then you talk about too.
You know I think back to thosewalking those bean days old, the
old jeans out there and thebeans are up here to the chest
and soaking wet all morning andhoping your brother doesn't cut
you with the corn knife when youhe goes you grab a weed or
whatever.
But you know one thing alsothat's happened a lot that's
occurred in those many yearssince we were walking beans to
(05:39):
now is what was the expectedyield level back that time
versus where it's at now?
And again that's all helped addto some of this that we're
dealing with.
So you know we talk about theamount of bushels that we've
increased in beans or wherewe're going after that high
yield.
You know, one thing that I liketo think about or go from is
(06:00):
what's the impact?
You know we try to ask thisquestion every time when we're
on our podcast.
But you know what really is, orwhat's the total impact of
sclerotina white mold, onsoybeans to the US economy.
I mean, what's it cost farmers?
What's a relative ballpark?
It's costing us every year inlosses that we're seeing from
white mold damage.
Speaker 3 (06:20):
Yeah, yeah, in preparation for the episode here
today, I looked this one up ononline and the best guess that
we can find, basically from 2023data, is roughly about 30
million bushels per year.
You know, take that times 10,you get about 300 million
dollars overall, basically tosoybean production, and I would
estimate that's probably higherthan that based upon what you're
(06:42):
seeing in areas that wetypically haven't seen this
disease before.
So with that, I guess I'll goahead and bring in Eric Schultz.
Eric is our tech service repthat both Jeff and I had the
privilege to work with inNebraska and Western Iowa, but
he has since moved up to thegreat state of Minnesota.
So again, he's a North DakotaState University alum.
(07:04):
So another North Dakota State,another Bison.
So they got a football team, isthat right?
Speaker 4 (07:11):
Oh, just a halfway decent one.
Yeah, yeah that's good, that'sgood.
Speaker 3 (07:15):
So he's in Minnesota, originally from Minnesota.
So, eric Schultz, welcome tothe stage here.
Again, thanks for being heretoday.
Speaker 4 (07:24):
No thanks for having me on.
You know, white mold is a topicI hold pretty near and dear to
my heart.
And what do they call that?
Saying you know?
Moving on up, you know that'skind of what I did, going from
the Nebraska-Iowa life.
You know moving on up LiterallyFor an entire state, when the
slogan is the good life you know.
(07:45):
They got to convince you ofthat as soon as you get across
the border.
So well, that's all the ribbonI'll give for you guys.
Today, I got nothing againstNebraska and Iowa.
Lots of good times, lots oflots of good times and lots of
good beans there too, soappreciate, appreciate being on.
Speaker 3 (08:03):
Absolutely, absolutely so, eric.
So so tell us about what.
What is Scarlatina white mold?
Why are we so concerned aboutit on the impact of soybean
production here in the U?
S, in the Midwest?
You know in your geography whatis going on and what is it.
Speaker 4 (08:20):
Well, and I think you touched on some of what I would
say are the biggest points orthe most important points with
white mold.
When you mention, you know,high-yielding soybeans attract
white mold disease pressure andI think that's what we've been
running into for a number ofyears.
And you're talking about itmoving to new areas and that's
(08:41):
what we continue to see as well.
I mean central Minnesota andyou get into North Dakota, the
Red River Valley, I mean theseare all historical areas of
white mold pressure, southernMinnesota, and then you get into
northern Iowa, I mean thisgeographical range.
There's a lot of high-yieldingsoybeans and that's why one of
(09:02):
the reasons why it's such animportant disease and such a big
issue is just because we'retrying to grow high-yielding
soybeans and exactly what we'retrying to grow is attracting
this disease, which can be quitedevastating.
I say the other side of whitemold at least.
That makes it so important, atleast to me, is that when you
have it, it hardly is just ayield nibbler.
(09:26):
You know we talk about brownspot in soybeans as kind of a
yield nibbler 10%, 5% septoria,brown spot in the lower canopy
White mold.
You know you very rarely haveit in a position where it's only
going to take 10% of your yield.
It's not really out there inthose pockets of a field taking
(09:47):
five to 10 bushels.
It might only leave you withfive to 10 bushels.
That's one of the things I thinkof when I think about the
importance of white mold andthis disease.
One of the most importantaspects of it and I keep saying
one of, because there's a lot tobe had here but is that once
you have this disease in a field, it's really never going away.
(10:10):
You're going to be battling thepotential to have white mold in
some capacity in that fieldevery time you grow soybeans and
I know you don't deal with itvery much in Iowa or in kind of
central or eastern Nebraska, butin Minnesota we also grow dry
edible beans, which is anothersignificant host for sclerotinia
(10:34):
and canola in North Dakota.
So there's a lot of issues thatgo along with crop rotation,
with some additional crops thatmake it worse.
But all in all, those are thethings I think of when I think
about white mold and itsimportance.
You're always going to have it.
Once you do have it and whenyou do have it.
Those pockets they could besmall, they could be large, but
(10:54):
whatever that pocket size is,you might be talking about
hardly getting any bushels offof that pocket at the end of the
year.
Speaker 2 (11:01):
No, those are great points.
You know what is the life cycleof sclerotinib white mold.
You know what's our life cyclewe deal with with that disease.
Speaker 4 (11:10):
Yeah, so well, I'll start with the visual, the most
visual part of it.
In a soybean field and thiswould happen most often in
August, or you could see it inlate July in some worst case
scenarios.
But if you're walking throughbeans in August and you're in R3
soybeans, r4 soybeans and youtalked a little bit about that
(11:30):
canopy up to the chest, or yougot dense canopy, a dense field
up to the chest, or you gotdense canopy, a dense field but
you're walking through there yousee wilted plants, or even
wilted just trifoliates, or apetiole and a trifoliate.
It's brown, it's shriveled,it's wilted.
Or you get whole plants and thenyou pull that plant out you may
find quite the fuzzy myceliumthat would be the white kind of
(11:55):
growth from white mold thatoccurs on the stem and in the
pods, primarily on a plantthat's infected with white mold.
So that's the visual, the mostvisual part of white mold as a
disease in the field.
But the problem with white moldis it has a full disease cycle.
It overwinters as the sclerotia, which are black, really hard,
(12:18):
rat-dropping-like shaped bodies,fruiting bodies, those are
formed from white mold later inthe season and then they're in
your soil for easily over 10years.
I think a lot of the olderliterature even had 7 to 10
years and then the newerliterature says about 10 years
is minimum, so not too far offoverall.
(12:40):
But then that overwinteringoccurs and then from that black
structure in the spring or inthe early summertime there are
mushroom-like structures thatgerminate and grow out of that
black sclerotia.
And these mushrooms are calledapothecia and those are what
shoots ascospores.
(13:01):
And those ascospores infect thesoybean plant and goes after
some of the older senescingflowers in a plant.
That's kind of the number oneavenue of infection when it
comes to those ascospores.
But that's a quick peek at thedisease cycle.
Tried to make it quick at least.
Speaker 2 (13:18):
No, no, no.
It was very thorough, as alwayswith you, eric.
But you know, one of thefollow-up questions I had is you
know, once you have you knowhow long will the inoculum last
in the soil?
And you've answered that, onceyou have it, it's there, right,
(13:39):
you're not going to get rid ofit.
From that standpoint.
We talked about the spores, youknow get into the senescing
older flowers.
That's how they enter into thatsoybean plant and start with
the white mold.
But can that mycelium, can itinfect through the soybean roots
, or is that infection justmainly done through the
flowering, the dead flowers onthe plant?
Speaker 4 (13:57):
Well and primarily those ascospores that shoot from
the apothecia mushrooms.
That's a primary, I will say,avenue of infection.
However, again back toliterature comparisons very
recently I believe, in theliterature they found that there
are infections for sclerotiniathat occur through the roots.
(14:18):
So, albeit it's kind of a newerconcept, but seed treatment
opportunity for protectingagainst white mold.
Now I'm not going to commentanything on active ingredients
or effectiveness, but I will saythat, based on conceptually
potential infection through theroot, seed treatment could
provide another avenue ormanagement avenue.
(14:40):
So great question, jeff, onthat, for the mycelium or for
the infection point.
Speaker 3 (14:46):
Yeah, eric.
So let's go a little bitfurther here and we're kind of
getting some details here.
So we think about, you know,red and blue, white wavelength,
and you know we see the cloudydays, we see the smoke, you know
coming down from Canada duringthat time frame, all those
different things.
So I've heard about the lightwavelength, the blue versus red,
and no light for apotheosisdevelopment.
(15:07):
You know what is this?
Speaker 4 (15:08):
and kind of.
Why is it?
Speaker 3 (15:09):
important to understand it.
Speaker 4 (15:12):
Yeah, yeah, and I mean it's quite the the question
and quite the concept,especially when you want to talk
about it to a soybean grower aswell.
And, bill, I'm sure you, youknow that as well, and those
listening to this, this podcastas well, make make no mistake.
This is that's quite the deepside of this, but it's.
It's rather easy to understandif you just think about the
(15:33):
canopy and you think aboutwhat's going on underneath that
canopy or through that canopy,because everybody can picture
sunlight, everybody can picturea soybean canopy, whether it's
30-inch row spacing or 15-inchrow spacing, covering up or
closing completely, and thelight interception of that
canopy and what's left of thatlight that gets through the
(15:57):
canopy to the soil is whereyou're going with this question.
When it comes to blue versus redand correct me if I'm wrong,
bill, but the blue light is whatthe apotheosia likes the most
of.
It will not be triggered togerminate near as much with the
(16:18):
red, but the blue light, whichwould be the light that's
filtered through the canopy,would be what drives that
apothecia.
So I guess, again connectingthis to the soybean canopy, the
sooner you have a soybean canopy, hypothetically or conceptually
again, the sooner you get asoybean canopy, hypothetically
or conceptually.
Again, the sooner you get, youknow more of that blue light
(16:40):
that's being driven to the soil,that could trigger more of
those apothecias.
Speaker 3 (16:45):
Yeah, spot on.
So you know that's some newstuff we picked up here about a
year ago and we just want tomake sure we call that out here
today, trying to understand.
That is because it's reallygoes back to canopy and then
also it goes back to some cloudcover and goes back to some
smoke that's coming from Canadadown.
That influences basically ourlight and what we try to figure
(17:06):
out.
Why did we have white mold?
Why?
didn't we have white mold eachand every year, so definitely
something that digging in alittle further.
So one thing we want to makesure to come out on this, on
this episode.
So thanks for that.
So, jeff, go to you.
Speaker 2 (17:18):
Yeah, no, no good point.
So you know, recently you knowyou've been in what Minnesota
for, you've moved back.
Was it about two and a halfthree years, Three, three
seasons?
Yeah, yeah.
So before that, when you werean avid Cornhusker fan, when you
were living in Nebraska, youknow, we, we didn't really talk
about white mold at all.
Remember it wasn't a big thingyou talked about maybe a little
(17:41):
bit in Northeast Nebraska, butreally in a lot, a lot of areas
it was non-existent.
We didn't really hit on it awhole lot.
Now, all of a sudden, we haveit and it's showing up in areas
which is it's considered it's inareas that it's considered not
to see it in this Midwest.
Why are we seeing it move in?
Where did it come from?
Why, all of a sudden, are wehaving it here in Nebraska when
(18:02):
we've never had it before?
What's moved it in or what aresome of the aspects of why it's
becoming more of an issue for usover here to the west, for
something that we never reallydealt with before or worked with
before?
Speaker 4 (18:15):
Right.
Yeah, you're exactly right.
I mean there were pockets innorth central Nebraska.
I recall maybe in centralNebraska a little bit, but
northeast Nebraska was theposter child down there for
white mold and you know back toits life cycle, because I think
that's one place to start onthis.
It's one of the places I canstart at least because I can't
(18:37):
speak to climate patterns ormoisture patterns that are going
through.
You know, at least in any kindof academic sense.
But when it comes to thesurvivability of this there's no
bounds.
It's not like you only have twoyears worth of viability from
the fungal pathogenoverwintering in the soil where
there's a stopping point orthere's guardrails here where
(18:59):
you don't have to worry about itafter two years or four years.
Even this stuff just survives.
So if there's any opportunityfor it to spread physically,
it's going to.
If you remove any amount ofsoil you know even a cup of soil
from a field or from an area ofa field that has some of those
sclerotia in that cup of soil.
You know even a cup of soilfrom a field or from an area of
a field that has some of thosesclerotia in that cup of soil
(19:20):
and you put that in anotherfield.
It's going to be there and,like I think Bill, you mentioned
this, I mentioned this but onceyou have it, it's always going
to be there.
So I think that physicalmovement is very important and
that's one of the drivers andyou got to go back to the
disease triangle as well, forall diseases but host, pathogen
(19:43):
and environment.
So I think, starting with thepathogen and new areas, jeff, I
think that's how that hashappened most prominently, I
would guess and then, over thecourse of time, that one
sclerotia that may have gottenthe field all of a sudden turns
into 10, all of a sudden turnsinto 10 million.
So and the environment's goingto drive that.
(20:05):
So I think it's there'snumerous factors to that, but
there really isn't anyrestrictors because of the fact
that stuff just survives.
Speaker 2 (20:15):
Yeah, that's a great point.
You think about how manyfarmers, producers, clean off
their equipment when they leavea field, and then you think
about how many of them you knowit used to be if you drove 10
miles down the road, you farmeda long way away from your house.
Now it's nothing for them todrive 100 miles and move
equipment and to farm and itjust makes things hop, skip and
(20:37):
jump that much more.
So that's a great answer onthat one, bill what do you got?
Speaker 3 (20:41):
Yeah, yeah, so to follow up on that one just a
little bit, you know thesclerotia basically can be about
the size of a seed too.
So if you don't have reallyclean seed you could potentially
have it come in.
You know your seed source.
So, again, making sure you buyseed from a reputable source,
basically to make sure you'vegot good, solid, you know clean
(21:04):
seed.
So that's one piece of it.
So, eric, you know a few morethings here.
So you know white mold.
So we talked about the pesthere.
So every time on this episodewe kind of talk problem,
solution, solution.
So so let's kind of get to thesolutions and let's talk a
little bit about control methods.
So so, what are some of thecontrol methods, uh, that we can
do?
Basically, uh, that you wouldadvise to our listeners?
Speaker 4 (21:27):
yeah, and you know I'll.
I'll mention a couple of cropprotection related things first
and foremost, and I mean there'sluckily there are, you know, a
handful or two of things thatcan be done to combat white mold
.
So, make no mistake, thisdisease can be quite devastating
(21:47):
, but there are options, thereare things that you can grab and
pick from and combine togetherin order to combat this, which
is nice.
It's nice to have that.
It's nice to talk aboutsolutions when it comes to
something.
But, crop protection-wise, weedcontrol matters when it comes
to white mold.
I think about lamb's quarters orpigweed species or velvetleaf.
(22:10):
They are all hosts for whitemold infection.
And, like I mentioned in someof the crop rotations I deal
with, there's dry edible beansand soybeans, so those are both
hosts.
So those weed species are notnecessarily on the same playing
field as hosts, as dry ediblebeans or soybeans, but they're
still hosts.
(22:30):
They still carry that part ofthe disease cycle with them.
They still carry that part ofthe disease cycle with them.
So controlling these weeds insoybeans or in corn or whatever
plants or crops are in therotation is going to be
important and it's somethingthat can be done.
The other side of cropprotection.
I would say I deal with themost would be a fungicide
application in the earlyreproductive stages of soybeans
(22:54):
and for BASF that hashistorically been the Boscalid
active ingredient and Endurafungicide and making that
application.
You know I've seen applicationsanywhere from a day before R1
through the beginning part of R3be successful and this is
(23:14):
across a wide geography.
But it's got to be earlyreproductive and that's a very
effective control method ormanagement method for white mold
.
Speaker 3 (23:28):
Yeah, cool.
So how about some cropprotection, specific products we
got anything at BASF that wecan use and specific products.
Speaker 4 (23:35):
We got anything at BASF that we could use.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I meanthe best control from BASF
fungicide or really on themarket and it has been proven
for quite a few years would beEndura fungicide.
Endura has done a fantastic jobthrough the years and I
mentioned already the activeingredient is boscalid, but this
active ingredient is trusted on, you know, a plethora of crops
(23:59):
that have sclerotinia infections, whether that is soybeans or
dry edible beans or canola, forinstance All crops that are
highly susceptible to white moldinfections that boscalid is
applied in the form of some BASFfungicide that's available for
that crop.
So Endura fungicide would farand away be the go-to option for
(24:22):
white mold management.
Speaker 3 (24:24):
How about anything new?
Anything new in the pipeline.
Speaker 4 (24:28):
Oh, there is one BASF has been working on for a
handful of years now.
It is a premix of Endura plusBASF's newest triazole chemistry
or active ingredient, revisol,fungicide, and the product is
going to be called Zarina,that's with a Z Zarina, endura
(24:50):
plus Revisol in a premix, and sothat product.
Again, it features the activeingredient that brings the
heaviest punch, the best controlin Boscalid from the Endura,
and then it also featuresanother with Revisol that does
bring some suppression, someminor level of control of white
mold, and then also some otherfoliar disease control as well
(25:12):
in soybeans.
As you know, we usually don'tdeal with only one issue out in
the soybean field at a time.
Speaker 3 (25:19):
Yeah, very good, very good.
So when can we expect thatproduct?
I guess that's probably allinformational for this podcast,
but when can we expect that tohit market for our customers
that they can access that?
Speaker 4 (25:30):
Yes, I believe BASF is targeting the 2026 field
season or use season for thatproduct.
But there should be plenty ofopportunities.
I mean, we've talked aboutwhite mold and geographies, but
in the upper Midwest, in theMidwest, there should be plenty
of opportunity in 2025 to talkto your local retailer or BASF
(25:52):
representative about Zarinafungicide and there should be
something experimental going onin all these target geographies
for white mold.
Speaker 3 (26:01):
Yeah, no, that's excellent, that's excellent.
So so, variety selection, youknow we definitely have that.
You know, going forward too,right?
So that's one big piece of thepuzzle.
You know we think about rowspacing.
You know, what would you say onrow spacing and seeding rate?
What would your advice be, fromkind of some cultural practices
for our listeners to do?
Speaker 4 (26:20):
Well, I would say, at least at the forefront, is
balancing this out, because ifyou put all your eggs into
managing white mold, you mightbe missing out on you know the
high yielding practices thatcould outweigh it because you
could implement strategies.
As I said, you've got a basketof choices here what makes sense
(26:42):
for your operation and whatmakes sense for your
historically your field, or youcan still go after the highest
yield while also managing forwhite mold, and I will say that
maybe the perfect management ofwhite mold might not be the best
management for high yieldingbeans.
So, row spacing, you could saywider rows are going to give you
more opportunity to have alower level of white mold
(27:05):
infection.
If you do have 15 inch rowspacing, for instance, dropping
that seeding rate down.
Bill, I'm not sure what's inyour latest research, but I've
known kind of down around that100,000 seeds per acre mark for
15-inch row spacing.
But those are the two things Ithink of would be.
(27:26):
You know, 30-inch rows yes,they're wider, you have more
opportunity.
15-inch rows you're going towant to drop that seeding rate.
But what do you think aboutdropping a seeding rate on a 30
inch row space?
Speaker 3 (27:38):
Yeah, no, that's.
You know we got.
We got lots of concerns aroundthat.
You just got to make sure youpick your variety correctly,
right?
So we want to dig back throughthat and understand you know how
we're going to get there.
And yeah, we can lower them,but we got to make sure we got
earlier.
So lots of good stuff, lots ofgood ideas there with all that.
(27:59):
So, but yeah, good stuff.
I'll turn it back to you, jeff.
Speaker 2 (28:03):
Yeah, yeah, no great great conversation there, guys.
So we're getting, we're goingto wrap it up for the day,
basically is where we're at Ericand just wanted to find out.
Speaker 4 (28:23):
Do you have any?
You know you have anything elseyou want to discuss or you have
any final parking comments thatyou would like to leave for the
listeners of today's podcast?
Well, I think I'd probably burnthrough enough of my word count
as it is, huh, but I'll say,you know white mold, when it
does show up, it's a pretty bigdeal.
So doing one or two things cango a real long way towards not
only targeting high yields still, but also managing
appropriately for white moldwhatever the pressure looks like
(28:45):
in a specific field.
So I'd say a lot of the reasonwhy I talk mostly on Endura
fundicide is that it allows forthe most flexibility and variety
selection also allows for themost flexibility with some of
the other management options orpractices that could be
incorporated.
So no, then that'd be.
(29:06):
It Really appreciate the time.
Thanks for having me on withyou guys today.
Speaker 2 (29:09):
Absolutely Bill.
Anything to add before we?
Yeah, of course I've gotsomething.
Speaker 3 (29:14):
Yeah, I've got something.
Of course I do here at the end.
So we talked about Endura.
So what kind of rate do weapply and when do we apply it?
What's the targeted time to goafter white mold and how early
or how late?
What do we do with?
Speaker 4 (29:28):
it.
The use rate for Endura that Iwork with in central and
southern Minnesota is betweensix and eight ounces per acre.
It is a dry product.
So when I do say ounces I don'tmean fluid ounces, literally
ounces, but six to eight ouncesdepending upon that pressure,
(29:50):
historical pressure, and thentargeting R1 or R1 plus you know
seven days or so, or R1 plus,you know seven days or so.
There is some validity,depending upon the year, at
looking at an early R2 growthstage application.
But predominantly in throughthe years, sometime in that R1
growth stage is when thatapplication should take place.
(30:13):
For optimal timing it has gotto be a preventative application
of the fungicide for white moldcontrol or for best opportunity
for control.
So, and you know, we have toget coverage, excellent coverage
down in the canopy we mentionedwhere this infects the nesting
flowers, for instance, and whereit starts in the lower part of
(30:36):
the canopy.
So making sure that pressure isup there at 50 PSI, for
instance, having a coarsedroplet size, applying 15 GPA,
those are all very important,very significant factors to a
successful fungicide application.
Not just that choice when itcomes to Enduro fungicide, but
(30:58):
great questions, bill, on that.
Speaker 3 (31:00):
Yeah, no, very good, very good, and then definitely
recommend following it withanother fungicide for other
foliar diseases.
What would you say there?
Speaker 4 (31:09):
Yeah, there is some opportunity when it comes, for
you know if you need to comeback with something that also
has white mold activity whetherthat's suppression from Preaxor
or Revitec fungicides or if youneed one good, heavy hit on
white mold and then coming backwith something at the R3 to R4
(31:31):
growth stage that's going tosignificantly boost yield and
provide outstanding plant healthbenefits, a product like
Revitec or Veltema at thattiming would be.
They both would be excellentchoices, but it's again, it's
going to be dependent upon thesituation and what that you know
, what that white mold wants todo or has done in a specific
(31:53):
field.
Yeah, no, very good Thanks.
Speaker 3 (31:56):
Eric, thanks again for joining us today.
Speaker 2 (31:58):
Yeah, thank you very much, Eric.
Appreciate you taking the timeand we'll be catching you here
one of these days in the fieldagain, so have a good one, my
friend.
Yeah, you too.
Speaker 4 (32:08):
Thanks again, guys.
Speaker 2 (32:09):
Yep, stay warm.
Yeah, yeah, well, bill, wowAgain heard a lot of information
, a lot of things aboutSclerotina white mold.
You can see why Eric'sbasically our resident expert
when we're talking about it fromthere.
You know what things did yougarner from what we talked about
(32:32):
and some of the points that hemade that could really help be
implemented by some of ourfarmers and our producers to
help them minimize some of theimpact that we see from
sclerotina white mold.
Speaker 3 (32:44):
Yeah, I think the main thing is everybody's going.
Why do I have it Like we talked, and where did it come from?
I haven't had it ever and alsonow I have it right.
So I think it's definitely.
I think, as you mentioned, uh,cleaning the combine, as eric
mentioned, cleaning the combine,you know, especially if you
know you've got a field that youhad it in, you know, take some
time to stop and clean thatcombine before you move fields.
(33:06):
I think that's going to be ahuge thing to minimize the
spread is.
You know, as I mentioned, makesure you got high quality seed,
make sure you don't have thesclerotia basically snuck
through with that seed cleaningprocess.
You know we think about the lifecycle I mean, what a life cycle
.
And you think overwintering.
Well, it's winter.
It's sitting there right nowjust waiting, waiting for its
time to shine and pull yieldback.
(33:27):
So I think that's a big part ofit.
You know, I think when youthink about Endura, you think
about the new product that we'vegot coming, zarina, you think
about everything around that,what that brings to the table.
I think BASF we're full ofinnovations and I think that's a
big piece of that puzzle andthen what we do on the seed side
.
Jeff, you and I spend a lot oftime understanding soybean
(33:49):
varieties, and understandingthat too are really some big
pieces of that puzzle.
There's a lot of things thatyou can do to.
You know, maximize yield, butyou don't want to go for one
pest, like Eric said it.
Well, make sure you don't onlymanage for white mold, because
you're going to miss out on somepotential high yield
environment where it doesn'tshow up as much.
It doesn't have the rightenvironment.
(34:09):
So that's kind of the keytakeaways that I have here today
.
How about you?
Speaker 2 (34:14):
Yeah, yeah, you key takeaways that I had here today.
How about you?
Yeah, yeah, you know, it'sabout making sure you know you
don't want to combat it too badand then not get your maximizing
your yield out there.
Because really, what is whitemold?
It's known as a high productiondisease, right, that's, you
know.
We're doing a lot of thingsfrom that standpoint, knowing
that there's some agronomicpractices that we can do out
there.
Maybe it's cut population backa little bit.
(34:34):
Maybe, instead of a narrow rowand we've got a field that has a
history of white mold issues,maybe we go, maybe a little bit
of a wider row, maybe there'ssome other things, maybe earlier
plant we can do.
So we have some managementstrategies.
The biggest take home point isis once you have it, you're not
going to get rid of it.
So if you've seen it and youdon't see it for a couple of
years, doesn't mean that it'sleft.
You still have to keep that inmind.
(34:54):
And one thing that I think iscritical that I tell producers
all the time and retailers is ifyou know you have a field of
white mold, make sure youposition that to be the last one
you harvest, or after youharvest that or done anything in
that field.
You need to clean out thatequipment Because, especially at
combine those ratppings, as he,as he said the correct way they
(35:20):
won't get cleaned outcompletely.
They'll sit in the bottom andyou get to the next field and
you'll you'll shivvy them outthe back and boom, there you go.
Now you got it back in yourfield.
So just being proactive that,if you know you have it, being
very proactive there to makingsure you can reduce the spread
and minimize some of the damagecomes from that's really going
to help that return oninvestment for that farmer going
forward.
(35:40):
So yeah, yeah, so.
Speaker 3 (35:42):
So let me jump in there real quick.
So as I think about you know wekeep referring back to our g by
e, by m, yield triangle,genetics, by environment, by
management you think about thegenetics, you think about the
environment that we've created,you think about the management
aspects that we have here.
So one other thing I wanted tomake sure that came out in this
episode was relative maturity.
So you know, earlier beans foryour relative maturity that have
(36:05):
a shorter flowering period, youknow will have the typically a
little bit less time frame thatthey're going to have the
infection to be able to hit themthrough those decaying blossoms
.
You know fuller season beanswill typically have a lot more
opportunity.
So one other tactic to consider,you know, if you have that, is
maybe consider going a tickearly on.
Your relative maturity for yourarea would be one other thing I
(36:28):
would advise to consider.
But again, don't do it to justdo that because you might give
up some yield.
So there's something to thinkthrough there as you put that
all together.
So again, a very interestingepisode, a lot of good stuff
here.
Jeff, thanks again for hosting,thanks for your time and I'll
turn it back to you?
Speaker 2 (36:43):
Yeah, absolutely, and thank all of you for joining us
today on this episode of Spillon the Beans.
We invite you to download theGrow Smart Live app for more
resources and share this podcastwith other growers.
So with that, me and Bill saythank you and make it a great
day.
Speaker 1 (36:59):
Thanks for joining us on Spilling the Beans, where
every episode gets you one stepcloser to maximizing your
soybean profitability.
If you found today's insightsvaluable, subscribe and leave us
a review on your favoriteplatform.
Download the Grow Smart Liveapp for more resources and share
the podcast with other growers.
See you next week with moreexpert tips to help you grow
(37:29):
smarter and achieve the bestyields yet.
Elivo, Vault, IP+, Relenia,Priaxor, Liberty, Ultra are
registered trademarks of BASF.
Nemosphere, Zorina and Voraxorare trademarks of BASF.
Enlist, Enlist One, Enlist Duoand Enlist E3 are registered
trademarks of Corteva AgritionsLLC.
The transgenic event in EnlistE3 Soybeans is jointly developed
(37:52):
and owned by Corteva AgritionsLLC and MS Technologies LLC.
Citavo is a registeredtrademark of MS Technologies and
exclusively distributed by BSF.
All other trademarks are theproperty of their respective
owners and use of any suchtrademark does not imply any
affiliation with or endorsementby its owner.
Always read and follow labeldirections Before mixing
components.
Always conduct a compatibilityjar test.
Always consult respectiveproduct labels for specific
mixing instructions.
The most restrictive labelapplies, not telling.
Fastax CS is a restricted usepesticide.
(38:13):
Nemasphere, zorina and Voraxorare not registered and not
available for sale.
This information is providedfor educational purposes only
and is not intended to promotethe sale of this product.
Any sale of this product afterregistration is obtained shall
be based solely on the EPAapproved product label and any
claims regarding product safetyand efficacy shall be addressed
solely by the label.
The views expressed by BASFemployees and guests are their
own and do not necessarilyreflect the views of BASF Grow.
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