April 22, 2025 • 29 mins
Charcoal rot may not be the flashiest disease in soybeans, but it’s a sneaky yield-robber that thrives in hot, dry conditions—exactly what many growers could face in 2025. In this episode, we welcome back Mark Storr, BASF Senior Technical Service Representative, to spotlight this often-overlooked threat. From identifying charcoal rot in the field to exploring management strategies like fertility, residue, and variety selection, Mark shares practical tools to help growers defend against mid-to-late season yield loss.
Key Takeaways:
- How to identify charcoal rot symptoms and distinguish them from lookalikes
- Why foliar fungicides don’t work—and what management tactics do
- The value of fertility, especially phosphorus, in supporting healthy roots
- How residue, RM selection, and tillage can help reduce plant stress
- The importance of sending in plant samples for proper diagnosis
- Trusted resources like the Crop Protection Network for field identification
Disclaimer:
Liberty, Outlook , Zidua, Zidua PRO , Poncho Votivo Precise, Endura , Revytek, Fastac CS, ILEVO , Vault IP Plus , Relenya , Priaxor , Liberty ULTRA , are registered trademarks of BASF. Nemasphere, Zorina and Voraxor are trademarks of BASF. Enlist, Enlist One, Enlist Duo, and Enlist E3 are registered trademarks of Corteva Agriscience LLC. The transgenic event in Enlist E3 soybeans is jointly developed and owned by Corteva Agriscience LLC and M.S. Technologies, L.L.C.
Xitavo is a registered trademark of MS Technologies and exclusively distributed by BASF. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners and use of any such trademark does not imply any affiliation with or endorsement by its owner.
Always read and follow label directions. Before mixing components, always conduct a compatibility jar test. Always consult respective product labels for specific mixing instructions. The most restrictive label applies. Fastac CS is a restricted use pesticide. Nemasphere, Zorina, and Voraxor are not registered and not available for sale. This information is provided for educational purposes only and is not intended to promote the sale of this product. Any sale of this product after registration is obtained shall be based solely on the EPA approved product label, and any claims regarding product safety and efficacy shall be addressed solely by the label. The views expressed by BASF employees and Guest are their own and do not necessarily reflect the views of BASF. Grow Smart is a registered trademark of BASF. Copyright 2025 BASF Corporation. All Rights Reserved.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
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 edition, or another
episode of Spilling the Beans.
I'm Jeff Mueller and I'm Bill.
Speaker 3 (00:30):
Beckes.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
And thanks again for joining us as we dive into the
world of soybeans, coveringvarious topics and providing
insights to the soybean industry.
Bill.
It's the middle of April.
Things are going pretty rapidright now.
How's things going in your neckof the woods?
Speaker 3 (00:47):
Yep, getting the trials in the ground and seed
out the door, and basically alot of calls and questions on
different things, ranging fromyou know, should I start
planting, should I wait,basically, to how deep should I
plant, what seeding rate?
Should I go?
Where do I plant this one.
Lots of questions, butdefinitely a good time, good to
get busy here again on all thatstuff.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
So yeah, yep, we always.
We always get those questionsevery year.
But we know the value of youknow.
You know there are a lot, a lot.
Large part of that yield isdetermined about at planting
time how well you get it inthere, making sure everything's
coming up well, all those thingsthat are involved there.
So it's it sure everything'scoming up well, all those things
that are involved there.
So it's one of the mostcritical times in that crop's
life is getting it put in theground and in the correct way.
(01:29):
You know we were talking herethe other day and we were saying
you know Outlook, right nowthey're talking it's going to be
dry and it's going to be hotthis summer.
You know that's kind of thecomments we're going to have
there.
And you know, when we thinkabout being hot and being dry,
you know a lot of times we think, well, it should be a pretty
low disease year, right,shouldn't have a whole lot of
disease.
You know we're not going tohave that out there.
(01:50):
But you know there is actuallya disease out there in soybeans
and one we want to talk abouttoday, which is charcoal rot.
That actually thrives in hotdry conditions.
It likes those hot dryconditions.
So that's something we reallywant to talk about today.
We want to talk a little bitwith our team expert, you know,
get a little bit more into thatafter you introduce them about
(02:11):
you know how it affects oursoybean crops, some of our
practical solutions for managingthe disease and really,
ultimately, what are things thatwe can do to help our audience,
to help protect that yield thatthey have out there going
forward in 2025.
Help protect that yield thatthey have out there going
forward in 2025.
So, with that being said, bill,I'm going to turn it off to you
and I'll let you give a littlebit of a conversation here and
(02:32):
then introduce our guest fortoday.
Speaker 3 (02:33):
Yep, sounds good, thanks, jeff.
So yeah, charcoal rot, one ofthose that you just don't think
about very often.
That's why we thought thismight be a good episode to kind
of fill some time here, if youwill, during planting, when
everybody's busy and out in thetractors, and something else to
think about.
That Robin yield from us.
So you think about.
You know we've been talkingsince the beginning on our yield
triangle, which is genetics byenvironment, by management, you
(02:55):
know.
So you think about selectingthe best genetics you possibly
can for that foundation of youryield and you think about the
environment that we're plantingthem into.
And environment comes weather,you know, comes the soil type,
comes CEC, comes slope, but alsocomes diseases presence
basically in that soil.
And then you think about themanagement.
You know when do we plant it,what seed treatments do apply,
(03:16):
you know how deep do we plant it.
You know what's the seedingrate, you know what herbicides
do I use to basically controlweeds.
All that stuff is themanagement side.
So you know the yield trianglereally derived from the concept
of the disease triangle.
So if you think about thedisease triangle you can think
about the host, you think aboutthe environment and then you
think about the pathogen beingpresent.
(03:37):
So if you think about all ofthat kind of put together and
how that influences yield, youknow we really got to think
about how do we understand.
You know these specificdiseases.
So you know.
Previous episodes we've talkedabout SDS, we're going to talk
about frog, at least by comingup, but today again we're going
to focus on charcoal rot, whichis kind of that hot, dry one, as
(03:59):
you mentioned, jeff.
So we think about theenvironment and everything we
got going on.
You know everything you knowcurrently still indicates that
the potential for 2025 is to bea little hot and dry.
But again, you know mothernature is still in charge, can
change and pivot at any point intime.
So but just understanding, youknow a little bit about this
(04:21):
past and what we do and so onand so forth around it.
So with that I'm going tointroduce Mark Mark Storr.
We had him on here a coupleweeks ago, but Mark Storr, basf
Senior Tech Service Rep fromAnkeny Again, grew up in
Pocahontas, as we talked in thatprevious episode.
Holds a Bachelor of Science andMaster's from Iowa State.
Also was in Todd High School infive years Northeast Iowa.
Worked for eight years for IowaState Extension Service.
(04:43):
It started with TSR with Amsideback in 1995.
Joined BASF North Carolina in2000 as a tech market manager
and then returned in 2003,basically primary focus in corn
and soybeans production here inthe state of Iowa.
So with that we'll go ahead andwelcome Mark Storer to the
stage and Mark, how are youdoing Good guys?
Speaker 4 (05:05):
How?
How are you doing Good guys?
How are you guys doing, doingwell?
Speaker 2 (05:09):
Doing well, doing well.
It's a busy time of the yearfor you also, isn't it?
Speaker 4 (05:14):
Oh yeah, yeah Well, not enough time in the day some
days, and that's what we'refacing, unfortunately.
Speaker 2 (05:20):
No, no, there never is.
Well, thanks for joining usagain tomorrow.
Ok, one one thing.
On your bio you said you were ahigh school teacher for five
years.
Speaker 4 (05:39):
I probably would be in jail after a day.
How did you make it?
Five years of teaching highschool?
Well, you know, everybody hasto be a martyr Right.
When I came out of school,there wasn't a lot to pick from
at the time.
We had a bad egg economy in theearly 80s and it affected a lot
of things, including jobprospects for Iowa State grads
(06:00):
just coming out of college, so Ireally enjoyed it.
It's still fun to run acrossformer students that I ran into
that you know remind me that.
You know it's amazing theimpact it had.
I could be a better teachertoday if I quit my job and went
back to the classroom than I was, you know, 30-odd years ago,
(06:23):
but I guess close to 40 yearsago now.
But yeah fun times in FayetteCounty.
I learned a lot, had a lot ofgreat folks up there to work
with in dairy country and, yeah,an interesting part of my
background.
Speaker 2 (06:39):
No, that's great, that's great.
Well, you know, that's onething I always hear from
everybody over in Iowa.
Bill always tells me he goes upstore.
You know, he just got, he's gotthe heart of a teacher and when
he talks to people he's talkingto customers.
He's not telling him, he'steaching them and that's
something we've alwaysappreciated that comes out of
you, mark, and we appreciatethat at BASF.
(06:59):
So we're going to talk aboutcharcoal rot today.
You know, bill, you know wemade a comment that you know
that it could be some potentialfor that this year.
A lot of people don't thinkabout charcoal rot when they
think about soybean diseases.
Right, it's not the first onethat pops off their head.
You know really what ischarcoal rot.
What's it?
You know what's it do to theplant, how's that progress or
(07:22):
what can have the impact on it.
Speaker 4 (07:29):
Yeah, well, it is, as you mentioned, not one that's
probably on the top ofeverybody's list, but it is a
soul-born fungal disease.
Macrophamina phasiolina wouldbe the genus and species, but
that's why plant pathologistscome up with terms like charcoal
rot, which happens to coincidewith kind of what it looks like
on the soybean tissue.
(07:50):
But it's like a lot of thesoul-borne diseases, it can live
a long time and we don't reallyknow how long it can exist.
The overwhelming structurethey're called the micro
sclerotia, so some of you folksmight be familiar with sclerotia
, the black mouse dropping likethings that white mold produces.
(08:15):
It's completely different fromthe standpoint that they're tiny
, tiny things.
Essentially, if you haveinfected tissue, the best
example I can give as to what itlooks like is you took a can of
black spray paint and just kindof, you know, gave it a shot,
going across the soybean stem ina lot of little black specks,
(08:40):
but within that there'll be alot of gray, uh coloration
between on the soybean stem.
But anyway, this is a soilfungal disease.
It enters the root uh, how itgot there, you know well.
Let a pathologist to do todetermine that.
But what it does is it infectsthe root and the stem and
(09:02):
basically plugs up the vasculartissue and shuts off water and
nutrient movement within theplant.
And so vascular disease.
Essentially, you're going tosee a dead plant that looks like
you know some type of a massivedrought.
They're wilted, they turn brownand die.
It is a patchy disease, you know.
(09:23):
I've never really I saw it.
Last year I ran into asituation.
I had to confirm the diagnosisat the plant pathology lab at
Iowa State.
But it's interesting, youmentioned it is weather
conducive.
It seems to enjoy hot, dryconditions.
This particular grower had somelighter spots and that's what
they look like.
Driving down the road, I mean,you know, maybe you've seen sand
(09:47):
areas or sand lenses or areaswithin a field where the corn or
, excuse me, well, corn too, butthe soybeans wilt late in the
day and then, after a time thatstays dry and hot, they don't
recover and they croak.
Well, it's the same kind ofthing with charcoal rot, but
it's, you know, it's.
The dry factor is a secondarything.
(10:08):
There is a fungal pathogensthat's predisposing these things
and you know so.
It's not going to causewidespread yield loss generally,
because it occurs more inpatches, but it, you know, is a
you know can be a problem forsome folks.
Speaker 3 (10:29):
Yeah.
So, mark, as you think backthrough, you know you talked
about, you know, hot and dry yousaid you know let's, let's
figure out how that pathologistgets, gets, lets that get into
the roots.
And you know I did a littleresearch here a couple of weeks
ago and a month ago now and youknow I did find that soybean
cyst nematode, you know, is oneway that allows the pathogen to
get into that root.
So any type of damage butanything that's getting in there
(10:51):
.
You know, I think we want tokeep that in mind on how we
think through to protect againstit.
But you know, just to just tobe crystal clear.
So what conditions you know,just to kind of frame it really
quick, what conditions veryspecifically, would you say that
charcoal rot?
thrives in as you think thatthrough.
Speaker 4 (11:10):
Yeah, hot, dry, airy conditions.
So it's going to be most likelyto occur in sandy soils first.
Then it will be in a bettersoil, then it will be in a
better soil Again.
Look for patchiness as opposedto widespread plant disease or
death.
(11:30):
It's late season.
It's not going to be a diseasethat's going to attack those
plants or finish them off untilwell into the reproductive stage
of the plant.
So we'd be looking at the tailend of flowering in a lot of
cases when we start to see this,so similar to, maybe like white
mold.
(11:50):
In that regard, it's generallysomething that you don't see
until much later in the season,even though the infection
occurred quite a bit earlier.
Yeah, yeah, anything that causesstress.
I mean the key to management ofthese things.
Diseases are opportunistic.
Think about, you know, the wolfthat attacks the caribou, or
(12:12):
whatever.
You know they.
They don't pick on the, thehealthy caribou, it's the weak,
right, the newborns or the oldones or whatever.
And diseases are operated in asimilar fashion.
They seem to thrive onattacking the weak, and that's
where you look at hot, dry, aridsoil.
Those plants are stressed andthat's actually one of the ways
(12:39):
you can mitigate it.
If you have irrigation.
That may, you know, presentitself to be a way of helping
out, but unfortunately thatdoesn't work for most of us here
in Iowa, right, yeah?
Speaker 2 (12:47):
Yeah, no, that's a good point.
Now I know why Bill and theteam, all these, pick on me.
So, with that being said, mark,what are some of the?
What are some of the maybe thebest practices that we can
utilize for control of charcoalrot?
Because I'll be honest with you,here in Nebraska, obviously we
have irrigation, but we're hot,we're dry, we have heat stress
(13:11):
and we have sand and we have alot more charcoal rot out in
these fields than I think peoplerealize.
A lot of times what we'll runinto is on gravity ground.
Oh, the water just didn't getthrough.
So that you know, or the waterjust ran through there or
something else, or that's just asandy spot in the field.
I think there's more going onthere in those cases, like
you're saying, it's scatteredand seeing some of that.
(13:32):
And okay, why?
Why?
What happened to my beans?
Why they died?
They didn't put any pods on it.
It's an area there and nobodycan really figure out.
I think we're dealing with a lotmore charcoal rot in some of
those cases and then we have,but you know, what are just some
.
You know, you mentionedirrigation a little bit ago, but
what are just some things thatwe can do from a management
standpoint.
You know, is there resistancein varieties?
Can we do something differentwith tillage?
(13:54):
What would you recommend ourlisteners to do if they have
charcoal rot or if it is aconcern?
Some things they could do tohelp minimize some of that
effect that could potentiallyhappen some of that effect that
could potentially happen.
Speaker 4 (14:08):
Yeah well, all the good points and things to
consider, I think the firstthing I look at is soil
fertility and making, andparticularly phosphorus is
important for root developmentof soybeans.
So basically, you want to be inthe ideal range, not poor
fertility, but not on the otherextreme either.
Too much fertility can causedetrimental plant effects as
(14:30):
well.
So I would start there.
You obviously can't controlyour soil.
You know what Mother Nature hashanded us is what we have to
work with.
But in management of that,maybe no-till leaving more
residue will create a bettermulch environment to residue
(14:51):
will create a better mulchenvironment to preserve soil
moisture, cut down onevaporation on the soil surface
and those types of things thatcan lend itself to increasing
that water holding capacity ofthe soil and those types of
things Keeping the plantshealthy.
We know that seed treatmentsare not considered effective on
charcoal rot, nor are foliarfungicides, but we do know that
(15:12):
both of those things provide alot of benefits for soybean
growth and development and justby reducing other seaborne
illnesses or foliar diseases orfoliar diseases, we may be able
to alleviate stress within thoseplants and forego the aspects
of charcoal rot.
(15:33):
So I think those are all thingsto consider.
There's probably geneticresistance, but it's very
difficult to screen for adisease like charcoal rot.
So, you know, I guess we'llprobably, like you know, you
folks can maybe help us learnmore as time goes on there.
(15:53):
The other thing I have to talkabout is seeding rate.
That may come into play on anarid soil or, you know, maybe we
need to cut down on thepopulation in some of these
areas and keep a healthier stand.
That may help as well.
And then finally again, this isreally kind of in your guys'
(16:16):
camp when it comes to seedselection, there's really kind
of two schools of thought outthere.
In northern environments we maybe best utilizing a early
maturing variety, and the reasonis it will escape the disease
because it's completed most ofits reproductive activities
prior to the onset of thedisease, and so there's going to
(16:37):
be less chance for injury tooccur.
So if you're in a situationlike that, where maybe you're
known to have issues withcharcoal rot in your field, or
maybe you're known to haveissues with charcoal rot in your
field but you have to assumeit's going to be there in years
to come, you might want toconsider that In the south
(16:58):
there's actually some folks thatrecommend a fuller season
variety because that will expandyour window for the time in
that reproductive period.
So it kind of depends on whereyou're at productive period.
So kind of depends on whereyou're at.
But some things I think we couldconsider that might, you know,
help us manage this diseasesomewhat.
Obviously, you know really badcorn is a non-host but it can
(17:20):
support charcoal rot as well.
Just not very good.
Worst case scenario, if you gotout of beans for a couple years
would probably reduce thenumbers of these Microscorotia
and reduce your possibility fordisease.
But that's probably not themost practical solution for a
lot of growers.
(17:40):
But maybe in a bad field, plantcorn on corn for a few years.
That may be something to helpcut down on some of the
potential impact in future years.
But it's going to be kind oftough to really give a broad
brush approach, for this is howyou fix the problem.
Speaker 3 (17:58):
Yeah, mark, yeah, that's definitely a yield robber
.
You did steal my question there.
I'll reiterate it, just to makesure that we're crystal clear
on this.
You know, at BASF we talk a lotabout fungicides, right?
We talk a lot about what we cando, especially at R3.
So I have charcoal rot in myfield.
I've diagnosed it, I see it.
Can I spray a fungicide likeRevitec out there and control
(18:21):
charcoal rot?
That's my question, yes or no?
Speaker 4 (18:24):
Yes or no?
No, it's not going to impactthe disease in any way, but it
may offer increased activity onother diseases that predispose
the plant and may minimize thedamage that the charcoal rot
does.
Speaker 3 (18:46):
Yeah, no, very good.
I just want to make sure we'reclear for our listeners on that
one.
And then I will add just toyour comment on, you know,
throwing in our court on thevariety selection and variety
genetics and that sort of thing,we've got Leon basically down
in our plant pathology lab inMemphis, tennessee.
We have recently added a screenfor charcoal rot so we do run
all of our varieties Zotavosidethrough and all of our varieties
(19:08):
Zetavo side through and all ofour experimentals as well Future
Alliance through the screen forcharcoal rot.
So we are getting really gooddata.
He's pretty confident in hisratings that he's given us.
We are finding some distinctdifferences in variety selection
.
So very, very true to that one.
Speaker 4 (19:24):
So but yeah, Jeff, I'll turn it back to you.
Yep, absolutely, absolutely.
Speaker 2 (19:27):
So, but yeah, Jeff, I'll turn it back to you.
Yep, absolutely, absolutely.
Well, you know it's not themost sexy disease to talk about
in beans, but it is somethingthat you know.
It's out there more than werealize.
And again, I think you knowNebraska tends to be the trial
grounds for a lot of weedresistance and other things
happening.
But again, I do think it'ssomething we have more out here
that we just don't realize.
(19:48):
We just chalk it up to okay, wejust sandy spots and things
just didn't get watered as well,and I think there's other
things going on.
So that's great information tonote.
So, as we tie up this sessionof the podcast that we're
dealing with, is there anythingyou know?
Is there anything, mark, thatyou'd like our audience to take
(20:09):
home, or any additionalinformation that we haven't
touched on that you'd like togive our audience before we let
you go for the day?
Speaker 4 (20:18):
I think, jeff, they, you know, be aware.
Get out there and look at yourbeans.
But if you drive down the roadand you see some of these spots,
and maybe it's light ground,don't just assume it's the
drought or lack of water that'spredisposing those soybeans.
You know, get out in there andlook at them and you might find,
you know, all these blacks andlittle specks on the stems.
(20:40):
And you realize, huh, that'swhat I encountered last year,
because the grower didn't knowwhat was killing his beans.
He knew they were dying anduntil we got to the field and
looked at it, I said you know,this looks to me like charcoal
rot.
And so there's some great onlineinformation if people just
search for information on thedisease.
(21:01):
The crop protection network iswhere I go for a lot of disease,
great disease information.
It's basically a consortium ofall the land-grant universities
that deal, you know, with thesetypes of things and predominate
the most third-party research onthings like this.
So great information, somegreat photos of the disease.
(21:23):
If you're struggling todetermine, you know what you're
looking at of the disease.
If you're struggling todetermine, you know what you're
looking at.
And they have a host ofinformation on all the common
diseases in corn and soybeansthat we deal with here in the
Midwest.
So a great reference piece.
Speaker 2 (21:38):
Yeah, and you take on top of that.
I'm not the most tech-savvyperson in the world, but you
know, with having the phones andiPads that we have now, it has
allowed some of those options ofbeing in the field and being
able to look up pictures and getinformation and seeing some of
that right out in the field.
That has helped us a lot withgetting some of these diagnoses
that we've had on some of thesefields.
Speaker 3 (22:01):
Yeah, no, very true, I was going to throw in there
real quick.
You get a lot of misdiagnosisright on things like that
because you want lookalikes andyou think about you know, just
pot and stem blight.
You think about you know,anthracnose.
You take your pick.
There's a lot of lookalikesthat are out there and you know,
if you're really trying tofigure it out, you know, send it
off, you know, to your diseaseclinic.
(22:22):
You know BASF we will offerthat as well down to our own
in-house pathology lab.
If you have a question,definitely let us know.
Let your BISF rep know.
We can sure help out.
But your local university, landGrant University, can help you
out there as well.
So a lot of great stuff on that.
So, mark, I thank you for yourtime and I guess, jeff, I'll
turn it back to you for being onthe phone.
Speaker 2 (22:45):
Thank you very much for your expertise again.
We really appreciate it, hey,pleasure to be here.
Absolutely Well, bill, you knowprobably an episode that People
will wonder about.
You know, maybe put it this way, do I really need to know about
it or is it something thatreally pertains to me?
(23:05):
And the reality of it is it's alot more prevalent than farmers
realize and I don't know ifthis is the right way to say it,
but it's not the quote unquotesexy disease.
You know it's the one that'sout there and I truly believe,
like we have talked in here,we're seeing a lot more of that
here in my area in Nebraska aswe go west with those hot, dry
conditions and we chalk it up toa sand spots, not enough
(23:28):
moisture or something going on,and there's, you know, there's
other things going out there.
What was just a coupletake-home points that you got
from today's for our audience,you know you think be important
for them to remember, and acouple things that you know you
think are just some good tidbitsof information we learned today
.
Speaker 3 (23:44):
Yeah, no, I think Mark nailed it and did a great
job, as I knew he would.
And we, you know, we said, hey,let's talk about charcoal rot.
And he's like, okay, you know,not the most like, you say not
the most sexy disease, but let'sfigure it out and let's talk
through it and get it out there.
And you know he's got some realworld experience, saw it last
year and we've seen it as well.
You know, more commonly, and Ithink you know you think through
(24:05):
the past several years, ofbeing fairly dry and fairly hot
at different times and I thinkthat's allowed us to right,
wrong or indifferent.
Going back to the diseasetriangle, see it develop.
We've had the host, we've hadthe pathogen, we've had the
environment and I think we putall that together.
So a couple of things that youknow.
He talked about some bestmanagement practices.
He talked about, you know, soilfertility.
(24:26):
You know really really thinkingabout the phosphorus and root
growth.
I think that's a big piece ofthat.
So we talked a previous episodewith Chad, you know, about
fertility and everything he doesin the soybean.
So think about that, how thatall kind of ties together and
really just taking care of a lotof these diseases.
You know I like to always sayit starts with the seeds.
Select that best variety.
(24:46):
But then you got to think aboutfertility right and how that
ties into all this as well.
We had that conversation acouple of episodes as well ago
as well.
So you know the no-till and themulch and think about how that
all can actually, you know,mitigate the stress and keep
that moisture conserved, and youthink about how much healthier
things can be when you have areally good soil, biology and a
(25:08):
lot of things going around that.
So then the RM selection, Ithink the north-south.
You know you've got a lot ofguys that are trying to beat the
heat, I like to call it sothey're actually also trying to
beat the disease by planting anearly RM as you take them north
and then, you know, fuller goingsouth to kind of spread that
out.
So a lot of good things there.
So, jeff, how about yourself?
Speaker 2 (25:26):
Yeah, you know you hit on several of them.
I had, you know, the phosphorushe brought up.
But you know, really that'sprobably one thing that probably
gets overlooked the most isprobably the soil fertility and
a lot of times I would say,maybe not from under or lower
levels but, like Mark also said,high levels, excessive levels.
In some of these areasespecially, you know where you
get a lot of livestock manure orsome of that going on.
(25:46):
You can have some of that goingon.
So I learned from that.
You know you think it's a, youknow you think a fungicide would
take care of it but it doesn't.
But you know, mark hit some keypoints on that too.
And one of my biggest ones Ialways talk about here over West
, especially with the hotter,drier conditions we had last few
years, you may not be able totake that disease but there's a
(26:07):
stress mitigation componentbehind using fungicides and
happy plant, happy yields.
So you know part of that, alarge part of it, is not just
that protection of a singulardisease but it's that stress
mitigation and making sure, ifthat is out there, you're
keeping it as healthy and ashappy as possible to help
(26:29):
minimize the effect of thatcertain one that maybe you can't
control with it, but yet itbrings a lot of things to the
table from that standpoint.
So a lot of nice take homepoints from there.
And I think the other thing toadd on to and with everything we
made the comment Mark saidabout the crop protection
network utilize those resources.
(26:49):
We all got iPhones, I know, andmost of us have iPads.
Of course, I'm old enough, Ican't see on the phone anymore,
so I use the iPad.
But we have those resources.
We can be out in that field, wecan have pictures of it, we can
see what it looks like, andthen you really hit on top of
the point of send the sample in.
You can send it to BSF.
We'll have it looked at for youat our pathology lab.
Send it to your land grantuniversities.
(27:11):
Have it checked out, see what'sgoing on in some of those areas
, because knowing what you haveout there, that's your best plan
for combating it the next year.
So those are key and critical.
So, with that being said, we'regoing to wrap it up today.
Bill, thanks for joining me andthanks to all of you today for
joining us on this episode ofSpilling the Beans.
We invite you to download theGrow Smart Live app for more
(27:32):
resources and share this podcastwith other growers.
So, as always as we send off,thank you all for joining us
today and make it a great day.
Speaker 1 (27:41):
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
(28:03):
smarter and achieve the bestyields yet.
Liberty Outlook, zidua, zidua,pro, poncho, motivo, precise,
endura, rivitec, fastax, cs,elevo, vault, ip+, relenia,
triaxor, liberty Ultra areregistered trademarks of BASF.
Nemosphere, zorina and Voraxorare trademarks of BASF.
Enlist, enlist One, enlist Duoand Enlist E3 are registered
(28:24):
trademarks of Corteva AgritiansLLC.
The transgenic event in EnlistE3 soybeans is jointly developed
and owned by Corteva AgritiansLLC and MS Technologies LLC.
No-transcript efficacy shall beaddressed solely by the lady.
(29:10):
The views expressed by BASFemployees and guests are their
own and do not necessarilyreflect the views of BASF.
Grossmart is a registeredtrademark of BASF.
Copyright 2025 BASF Corporation.
All rights reserved.
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 edition, or another
episode of Spilling the Beans.
I'm Jeff Mueller and I'm Bill.
Speaker 3 (00:30):
Beckes.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
And thanks again for joining us as we dive into the
world of soybeans, coveringvarious topics and providing
insights to the soybean industry.
Bill.
It's the middle of April.
Things are going pretty rapidright now.
How's things going in your neckof the woods?
Speaker 3 (00:47):
Yep, getting the trials in the ground and seed
out the door, and basically alot of calls and questions on
different things, ranging fromyou know, should I start
planting, should I wait,basically, to how deep should I
plant, what seeding rate?
Should I go?
Where do I plant this one.
Lots of questions, butdefinitely a good time, good to
get busy here again on all thatstuff.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
So yeah, yep, we always.
We always get those questionsevery year.
But we know the value of youknow.
You know there are a lot, a lot.
Large part of that yield isdetermined about at planting
time how well you get it inthere, making sure everything's
coming up well, all those thingsthat are involved there.
So it's it sure everything'scoming up well, all those things
that are involved there.
So it's one of the mostcritical times in that crop's
life is getting it put in theground and in the correct way.
(01:29):
You know we were talking herethe other day and we were saying
you know Outlook, right nowthey're talking it's going to be
dry and it's going to be hotthis summer.
You know that's kind of thecomments we're going to have
there.
And you know, when we thinkabout being hot and being dry,
you know a lot of times we think, well, it should be a pretty
low disease year, right,shouldn't have a whole lot of
disease.
You know we're not going tohave that out there.
(01:50):
But you know there is actuallya disease out there in soybeans
and one we want to talk abouttoday, which is charcoal rot.
That actually thrives in hotdry conditions.
It likes those hot dryconditions.
So that's something we reallywant to talk about today.
We want to talk a little bitwith our team expert, you know,
get a little bit more into thatafter you introduce them about
(02:11):
you know how it affects oursoybean crops, some of our
practical solutions for managingthe disease and really,
ultimately, what are things thatwe can do to help our audience,
to help protect that yield thatthey have out there going
forward in 2025.
Help protect that yield thatthey have out there going
forward in 2025.
So, with that being said, bill,I'm going to turn it off to you
and I'll let you give a littlebit of a conversation here and
(02:32):
then introduce our guest fortoday.
Speaker 3 (02:33):
Yep, sounds good, thanks, jeff.
So yeah, charcoal rot, one ofthose that you just don't think
about very often.
That's why we thought thismight be a good episode to kind
of fill some time here, if youwill, during planting, when
everybody's busy and out in thetractors, and something else to
think about.
That Robin yield from us.
So you think about.
You know we've been talkingsince the beginning on our yield
triangle, which is genetics byenvironment, by management, you
(02:55):
know.
So you think about selectingthe best genetics you possibly
can for that foundation of youryield and you think about the
environment that we're plantingthem into.
And environment comes weather,you know, comes the soil type,
comes CEC, comes slope, but alsocomes diseases presence
basically in that soil.
And then you think about themanagement.
You know when do we plant it,what seed treatments do apply,
(03:16):
you know how deep do we plant it.
You know what's the seedingrate, you know what herbicides
do I use to basically controlweeds.
All that stuff is themanagement side.
So you know the yield trianglereally derived from the concept
of the disease triangle.
So if you think about thedisease triangle you can think
about the host, you think aboutthe environment and then you
think about the pathogen beingpresent.
(03:37):
So if you think about all ofthat kind of put together and
how that influences yield, youknow we really got to think
about how do we understand.
You know these specificdiseases.
So you know.
Previous episodes we've talkedabout SDS, we're going to talk
about frog, at least by comingup, but today again we're going
to focus on charcoal rot, whichis kind of that hot, dry one, as
(03:59):
you mentioned, jeff.
So we think about theenvironment and everything we
got going on.
You know everything you knowcurrently still indicates that
the potential for 2025 is to bea little hot and dry.
But again, you know mothernature is still in charge, can
change and pivot at any point intime.
So but just understanding, youknow a little bit about this
(04:21):
past and what we do and so onand so forth around it.
So with that I'm going tointroduce Mark Mark Storr.
We had him on here a coupleweeks ago, but Mark Storr, basf
Senior Tech Service Rep fromAnkeny Again, grew up in
Pocahontas, as we talked in thatprevious episode.
Holds a Bachelor of Science andMaster's from Iowa State.
Also was in Todd High School infive years Northeast Iowa.
Worked for eight years for IowaState Extension Service.
(04:43):
It started with TSR with Amsideback in 1995.
Joined BASF North Carolina in2000 as a tech market manager
and then returned in 2003,basically primary focus in corn
and soybeans production here inthe state of Iowa.
So with that we'll go ahead andwelcome Mark Storer to the
stage and Mark, how are youdoing Good guys?
Speaker 4 (05:05):
How?
How are you doing Good guys?
How are you guys doing, doingwell?
Speaker 2 (05:09):
Doing well, doing well.
It's a busy time of the yearfor you also, isn't it?
Speaker 4 (05:14):
Oh yeah, yeah Well, not enough time in the day some
days, and that's what we'refacing, unfortunately.
Speaker 2 (05:20):
No, no, there never is.
Well, thanks for joining usagain tomorrow.
Ok, one one thing.
On your bio you said you were ahigh school teacher for five
years.
Speaker 4 (05:39):
I probably would be in jail after a day.
How did you make it?
Five years of teaching highschool?
Well, you know, everybody hasto be a martyr Right.
When I came out of school,there wasn't a lot to pick from
at the time.
We had a bad egg economy in theearly 80s and it affected a lot
of things, including jobprospects for Iowa State grads
(06:00):
just coming out of college, so Ireally enjoyed it.
It's still fun to run acrossformer students that I ran into
that you know remind me that.
You know it's amazing theimpact it had.
I could be a better teachertoday if I quit my job and went
back to the classroom than I was, you know, 30-odd years ago,
(06:23):
but I guess close to 40 yearsago now.
But yeah fun times in FayetteCounty.
I learned a lot, had a lot ofgreat folks up there to work
with in dairy country and, yeah,an interesting part of my
background.
Speaker 2 (06:39):
No, that's great, that's great.
Well, you know, that's onething I always hear from
everybody over in Iowa.
Bill always tells me he goes upstore.
You know, he just got, he's gotthe heart of a teacher and when
he talks to people he's talkingto customers.
He's not telling him, he'steaching them and that's
something we've alwaysappreciated that comes out of
you, mark, and we appreciatethat at BASF.
(06:59):
So we're going to talk aboutcharcoal rot today.
You know, bill, you know wemade a comment that you know
that it could be some potentialfor that this year.
A lot of people don't thinkabout charcoal rot when they
think about soybean diseases.
Right, it's not the first onethat pops off their head.
You know really what ischarcoal rot.
What's it?
You know what's it do to theplant, how's that progress or
(07:22):
what can have the impact on it.
Speaker 4 (07:29):
Yeah, well, it is, as you mentioned, not one that's
probably on the top ofeverybody's list, but it is a
soul-born fungal disease.
Macrophamina phasiolina wouldbe the genus and species, but
that's why plant pathologistscome up with terms like charcoal
rot, which happens to coincidewith kind of what it looks like
on the soybean tissue.
(07:50):
But it's like a lot of thesoul-borne diseases, it can live
a long time and we don't reallyknow how long it can exist.
The overwhelming structurethey're called the micro
sclerotia, so some of you folksmight be familiar with sclerotia
, the black mouse dropping likethings that white mold produces.
(08:15):
It's completely different fromthe standpoint that they're tiny
, tiny things.
Essentially, if you haveinfected tissue, the best
example I can give as to what itlooks like is you took a can of
black spray paint and just kindof, you know, gave it a shot,
going across the soybean stem ina lot of little black specks,
(08:40):
but within that there'll be alot of gray, uh coloration
between on the soybean stem.
But anyway, this is a soilfungal disease.
It enters the root uh, how itgot there, you know well.
Let a pathologist to do todetermine that.
But what it does is it infectsthe root and the stem and
(09:02):
basically plugs up the vasculartissue and shuts off water and
nutrient movement within theplant.
And so vascular disease.
Essentially, you're going tosee a dead plant that looks like
you know some type of a massivedrought.
They're wilted, they turn brownand die.
It is a patchy disease, you know.
(09:23):
I've never really I saw it.
Last year I ran into asituation.
I had to confirm the diagnosisat the plant pathology lab at
Iowa State.
But it's interesting, youmentioned it is weather
conducive.
It seems to enjoy hot, dryconditions.
This particular grower had somelighter spots and that's what
they look like.
Driving down the road, I mean,you know, maybe you've seen sand
(09:47):
areas or sand lenses or areaswithin a field where the corn or
, excuse me, well, corn too, butthe soybeans wilt late in the
day and then, after a time thatstays dry and hot, they don't
recover and they croak.
Well, it's the same kind ofthing with charcoal rot, but
it's, you know, it's.
The dry factor is a secondarything.
(10:08):
There is a fungal pathogensthat's predisposing these things
and you know so.
It's not going to causewidespread yield loss generally,
because it occurs more inpatches, but it, you know, is a
you know can be a problem forsome folks.
Speaker 3 (10:29):
Yeah.
So, mark, as you think backthrough, you know you talked
about, you know, hot and dry yousaid you know let's, let's
figure out how that pathologistgets, gets, lets that get into
the roots.
And you know I did a littleresearch here a couple of weeks
ago and a month ago now and youknow I did find that soybean
cyst nematode, you know, is oneway that allows the pathogen to
get into that root.
So any type of damage butanything that's getting in there
(10:51):
.
You know, I think we want tokeep that in mind on how we
think through to protect againstit.
But you know, just to just tobe crystal clear.
So what conditions you know,just to kind of frame it really
quick, what conditions veryspecifically, would you say that
charcoal rot?
thrives in as you think thatthrough.
Speaker 4 (11:10):
Yeah, hot, dry, airy conditions.
So it's going to be most likelyto occur in sandy soils first.
Then it will be in a bettersoil, then it will be in a
better soil Again.
Look for patchiness as opposedto widespread plant disease or
death.
(11:30):
It's late season.
It's not going to be a diseasethat's going to attack those
plants or finish them off untilwell into the reproductive stage
of the plant.
So we'd be looking at the tailend of flowering in a lot of
cases when we start to see this,so similar to, maybe like white
mold.
(11:50):
In that regard, it's generallysomething that you don't see
until much later in the season,even though the infection
occurred quite a bit earlier.
Yeah, yeah, anything that causesstress.
I mean the key to management ofthese things.
Diseases are opportunistic.
Think about, you know, the wolfthat attacks the caribou, or
(12:12):
whatever.
You know they.
They don't pick on the, thehealthy caribou, it's the weak,
right, the newborns or the oldones or whatever.
And diseases are operated in asimilar fashion.
They seem to thrive onattacking the weak, and that's
where you look at hot, dry, aridsoil.
Those plants are stressed andthat's actually one of the ways
(12:39):
you can mitigate it.
If you have irrigation.
That may, you know, presentitself to be a way of helping
out, but unfortunately thatdoesn't work for most of us here
in Iowa, right, yeah?
Speaker 2 (12:47):
Yeah, no, that's a good point.
Now I know why Bill and theteam, all these, pick on me.
So, with that being said, mark,what are some of the?
What are some of the maybe thebest practices that we can
utilize for control of charcoalrot?
Because I'll be honest with you,here in Nebraska, obviously we
have irrigation, but we're hot,we're dry, we have heat stress
(13:11):
and we have sand and we have alot more charcoal rot out in
these fields than I think peoplerealize.
A lot of times what we'll runinto is on gravity ground.
Oh, the water just didn't getthrough.
So that you know, or the waterjust ran through there or
something else, or that's just asandy spot in the field.
I think there's more going onthere in those cases, like
you're saying, it's scatteredand seeing some of that.
(13:32):
And okay, why?
Why?
What happened to my beans?
Why they died?
They didn't put any pods on it.
It's an area there and nobodycan really figure out.
I think we're dealing with a lotmore charcoal rot in some of
those cases and then we have,but you know, what are just some
.
You know, you mentionedirrigation a little bit ago, but
what are just some things thatwe can do from a management
standpoint.
You know, is there resistancein varieties?
Can we do something differentwith tillage?
(13:54):
What would you recommend ourlisteners to do if they have
charcoal rot or if it is aconcern?
Some things they could do tohelp minimize some of that
effect that could potentiallyhappen some of that effect that
could potentially happen.
Speaker 4 (14:08):
Yeah well, all the good points and things to
consider, I think the firstthing I look at is soil
fertility and making, andparticularly phosphorus is
important for root developmentof soybeans.
So basically, you want to be inthe ideal range, not poor
fertility, but not on the otherextreme either.
Too much fertility can causedetrimental plant effects as
(14:30):
well.
So I would start there.
You obviously can't controlyour soil.
You know what Mother Nature hashanded us is what we have to
work with.
But in management of that,maybe no-till leaving more
residue will create a bettermulch environment to residue
(14:51):
will create a better mulchenvironment to preserve soil
moisture, cut down onevaporation on the soil surface
and those types of things thatcan lend itself to increasing
that water holding capacity ofthe soil and those types of
things Keeping the plantshealthy.
We know that seed treatmentsare not considered effective on
charcoal rot, nor are foliarfungicides, but we do know that
(15:12):
both of those things provide alot of benefits for soybean
growth and development and justby reducing other seaborne
illnesses or foliar diseases orfoliar diseases, we may be able
to alleviate stress within thoseplants and forego the aspects
of charcoal rot.
(15:33):
So I think those are all thingsto consider.
There's probably geneticresistance, but it's very
difficult to screen for adisease like charcoal rot.
So, you know, I guess we'llprobably, like you know, you
folks can maybe help us learnmore as time goes on there.
(15:53):
The other thing I have to talkabout is seeding rate.
That may come into play on anarid soil or, you know, maybe we
need to cut down on thepopulation in some of these
areas and keep a healthier stand.
That may help as well.
And then finally again, this isreally kind of in your guys'
(16:16):
camp when it comes to seedselection, there's really kind
of two schools of thought outthere.
In northern environments we maybe best utilizing a early
maturing variety, and the reasonis it will escape the disease
because it's completed most ofits reproductive activities
prior to the onset of thedisease, and so there's going to
(16:37):
be less chance for injury tooccur.
So if you're in a situationlike that, where maybe you're
known to have issues withcharcoal rot in your field, or
maybe you're known to haveissues with charcoal rot in your
field but you have to assumeit's going to be there in years
to come, you might want toconsider that In the south
(16:58):
there's actually some folks thatrecommend a fuller season
variety because that will expandyour window for the time in
that reproductive period.
So it kind of depends on whereyou're at productive period.
So kind of depends on whereyou're at.
But some things I think we couldconsider that might, you know,
help us manage this diseasesomewhat.
Obviously, you know really badcorn is a non-host but it can
(17:20):
support charcoal rot as well.
Just not very good.
Worst case scenario, if you gotout of beans for a couple years
would probably reduce thenumbers of these Microscorotia
and reduce your possibility fordisease.
But that's probably not themost practical solution for a
lot of growers.
(17:40):
But maybe in a bad field, plantcorn on corn for a few years.
That may be something to helpcut down on some of the
potential impact in future years.
But it's going to be kind oftough to really give a broad
brush approach, for this is howyou fix the problem.
Speaker 3 (17:58):
Yeah, mark, yeah, that's definitely a yield robber
.
You did steal my question there.
I'll reiterate it, just to makesure that we're crystal clear
on this.
You know, at BASF we talk a lotabout fungicides, right?
We talk a lot about what we cando, especially at R3.
So I have charcoal rot in myfield.
I've diagnosed it, I see it.
Can I spray a fungicide likeRevitec out there and control
(18:21):
charcoal rot?
That's my question, yes or no?
Speaker 4 (18:24):
Yes or no?
No, it's not going to impactthe disease in any way, but it
may offer increased activity onother diseases that predispose
the plant and may minimize thedamage that the charcoal rot
does.
Speaker 3 (18:46):
Yeah, no, very good.
I just want to make sure we'reclear for our listeners on that
one.
And then I will add just toyour comment on, you know,
throwing in our court on thevariety selection and variety
genetics and that sort of thing,we've got Leon basically down
in our plant pathology lab inMemphis, tennessee.
We have recently added a screenfor charcoal rot so we do run
all of our varieties Zotavosidethrough and all of our varieties
(19:08):
Zetavo side through and all ofour experimentals as well Future
Alliance through the screen forcharcoal rot.
So we are getting really gooddata.
He's pretty confident in hisratings that he's given us.
We are finding some distinctdifferences in variety selection
.
So very, very true to that one.
Speaker 4 (19:24):
So but yeah, Jeff, I'll turn it back to you.
Yep, absolutely, absolutely.
Speaker 2 (19:27):
So, but yeah, Jeff, I'll turn it back to you.
Yep, absolutely, absolutely.
Well, you know it's not themost sexy disease to talk about
in beans, but it is somethingthat you know.
It's out there more than werealize.
And again, I think you knowNebraska tends to be the trial
grounds for a lot of weedresistance and other things
happening.
But again, I do think it'ssomething we have more out here
that we just don't realize.
(19:48):
We just chalk it up to okay, wejust sandy spots and things
just didn't get watered as well,and I think there's other
things going on.
So that's great information tonote.
So, as we tie up this sessionof the podcast that we're
dealing with, is there anythingyou know?
Is there anything, mark, thatyou'd like our audience to take
(20:09):
home, or any additionalinformation that we haven't
touched on that you'd like togive our audience before we let
you go for the day?
Speaker 4 (20:18):
I think, jeff, they, you know, be aware.
Get out there and look at yourbeans.
But if you drive down the roadand you see some of these spots,
and maybe it's light ground,don't just assume it's the
drought or lack of water that'spredisposing those soybeans.
You know, get out in there andlook at them and you might find,
you know, all these blacks andlittle specks on the stems.
(20:40):
And you realize, huh, that'swhat I encountered last year,
because the grower didn't knowwhat was killing his beans.
He knew they were dying anduntil we got to the field and
looked at it, I said you know,this looks to me like charcoal
rot.
And so there's some great onlineinformation if people just
search for information on thedisease.
(21:01):
The crop protection network iswhere I go for a lot of disease,
great disease information.
It's basically a consortium ofall the land-grant universities
that deal, you know, with thesetypes of things and predominate
the most third-party research onthings like this.
So great information, somegreat photos of the disease.
(21:23):
If you're struggling todetermine, you know what you're
looking at of the disease.
If you're struggling todetermine, you know what you're
looking at.
And they have a host ofinformation on all the common
diseases in corn and soybeansthat we deal with here in the
Midwest.
So a great reference piece.
Speaker 2 (21:38):
Yeah, and you take on top of that.
I'm not the most tech-savvyperson in the world, but you
know, with having the phones andiPads that we have now, it has
allowed some of those options ofbeing in the field and being
able to look up pictures and getinformation and seeing some of
that right out in the field.
That has helped us a lot withgetting some of these diagnoses
that we've had on some of thesefields.
Speaker 3 (22:01):
Yeah, no, very true, I was going to throw in there
real quick.
You get a lot of misdiagnosisright on things like that
because you want lookalikes andyou think about you know, just
pot and stem blight.
You think about you know,anthracnose.
You take your pick.
There's a lot of lookalikesthat are out there and you know,
if you're really trying tofigure it out, you know, send it
off, you know, to your diseaseclinic.
(22:22):
You know BASF we will offerthat as well down to our own
in-house pathology lab.
If you have a question,definitely let us know.
Let your BISF rep know.
We can sure help out.
But your local university, landGrant University, can help you
out there as well.
So a lot of great stuff on that.
So, mark, I thank you for yourtime and I guess, jeff, I'll
turn it back to you for being onthe phone.
Speaker 2 (22:45):
Thank you very much for your expertise again.
We really appreciate it, hey,pleasure to be here.
Absolutely Well, bill, you knowprobably an episode that People
will wonder about.
You know, maybe put it this way, do I really need to know about
it or is it something thatreally pertains to me?
(23:05):
And the reality of it is it's alot more prevalent than farmers
realize and I don't know ifthis is the right way to say it,
but it's not the quote unquotesexy disease.
You know it's the one that'sout there and I truly believe,
like we have talked in here,we're seeing a lot more of that
here in my area in Nebraska aswe go west with those hot, dry
conditions and we chalk it up toa sand spots, not enough
(23:28):
moisture or something going on,and there's, you know, there's
other things going out there.
What was just a coupletake-home points that you got
from today's for our audience,you know you think be important
for them to remember, and acouple things that you know you
think are just some good tidbitsof information we learned today
.
Speaker 3 (23:44):
Yeah, no, I think Mark nailed it and did a great
job, as I knew he would.
And we, you know, we said, hey,let's talk about charcoal rot.
And he's like, okay, you know,not the most like, you say not
the most sexy disease, but let'sfigure it out and let's talk
through it and get it out there.
And you know he's got some realworld experience, saw it last
year and we've seen it as well.
You know, more commonly, and Ithink you know you think through
(24:05):
the past several years, ofbeing fairly dry and fairly hot
at different times and I thinkthat's allowed us to right,
wrong or indifferent.
Going back to the diseasetriangle, see it develop.
We've had the host, we've hadthe pathogen, we've had the
environment and I think we putall that together.
So a couple of things that youknow.
He talked about some bestmanagement practices.
He talked about, you know, soilfertility.
(24:26):
You know really really thinkingabout the phosphorus and root
growth.
I think that's a big piece ofthat.
So we talked a previous episodewith Chad, you know, about
fertility and everything he doesin the soybean.
So think about that, how thatall kind of ties together and
really just taking care of a lotof these diseases.
You know I like to always sayit starts with the seeds.
Select that best variety.
(24:46):
But then you got to think aboutfertility right and how that
ties into all this as well.
We had that conversation acouple of episodes as well ago
as well.
So you know the no-till and themulch and think about how that
all can actually, you know,mitigate the stress and keep
that moisture conserved, and youthink about how much healthier
things can be when you have areally good soil, biology and a
(25:08):
lot of things going around that.
So then the RM selection, Ithink the north-south.
You know you've got a lot ofguys that are trying to beat the
heat, I like to call it sothey're actually also trying to
beat the disease by planting anearly RM as you take them north
and then, you know, fuller goingsouth to kind of spread that
out.
So a lot of good things there.
So, jeff, how about yourself?
Speaker 2 (25:26):
Yeah, you know you hit on several of them.
I had, you know, the phosphorushe brought up.
But you know, really that'sprobably one thing that probably
gets overlooked the most isprobably the soil fertility and
a lot of times I would say,maybe not from under or lower
levels but, like Mark also said,high levels, excessive levels.
In some of these areasespecially, you know where you
get a lot of livestock manure orsome of that going on.
(25:46):
You can have some of that goingon.
So I learned from that.
You know you think it's a, youknow you think a fungicide would
take care of it but it doesn't.
But you know, mark hit some keypoints on that too.
And one of my biggest ones Ialways talk about here over West
, especially with the hotter,drier conditions we had last few
years, you may not be able totake that disease but there's a
(26:07):
stress mitigation componentbehind using fungicides and
happy plant, happy yields.
So you know part of that, alarge part of it, is not just
that protection of a singulardisease but it's that stress
mitigation and making sure, ifthat is out there, you're
keeping it as healthy and ashappy as possible to help
(26:29):
minimize the effect of thatcertain one that maybe you can't
control with it, but yet itbrings a lot of things to the
table from that standpoint.
So a lot of nice take homepoints from there.
And I think the other thing toadd on to and with everything we
made the comment Mark saidabout the crop protection
network utilize those resources.
(26:49):
We all got iPhones, I know, andmost of us have iPads.
Of course, I'm old enough, Ican't see on the phone anymore,
so I use the iPad.
But we have those resources.
We can be out in that field, wecan have pictures of it, we can
see what it looks like, andthen you really hit on top of
the point of send the sample in.
You can send it to BSF.
We'll have it looked at for youat our pathology lab.
Send it to your land grantuniversities.
(27:11):
Have it checked out, see what'sgoing on in some of those areas
, because knowing what you haveout there, that's your best plan
for combating it the next year.
So those are key and critical.
So, with that being said, we'regoing to wrap it up today.
Bill, thanks for joining me andthanks to all of you today for
joining us on this episode ofSpilling the Beans.
We invite you to download theGrow Smart Live app for more
(27:32):
resources and share this podcastwith other growers.
So, as always as we send off,thank you all for joining us
today and make it a great day.
Speaker 1 (27:41):
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
(28:03):
smarter and achieve the bestyields yet.
Liberty Outlook, zidua, zidua,pro, poncho, motivo, precise,
endura, rivitec, fastax, cs,elevo, vault, ip+, relenia,
triaxor, liberty Ultra areregistered trademarks of BASF.
Nemosphere, zorina and Voraxorare trademarks of BASF.
Enlist, enlist One, enlist Duoand Enlist E3 are registered
(28:24):
trademarks of Corteva AgritiansLLC.
The transgenic event in EnlistE3 soybeans is jointly developed
and owned by Corteva AgritiansLLC and MS Technologies LLC.
No-transcript efficacy shall beaddressed solely by the lady.
(29:10):
The views expressed by BASFemployees and guests are their
own and do not necessarilyreflect the views of BASF.
Grossmart is a registeredtrademark of BASF.
Copyright 2025 BASF Corporation.
All rights reserved.
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