USDA Observation Map 5/11/2007
This morning, several editors here were planning the next issue of the High Yield Team newsletter. That project aims to help soybean growers get good information on improving yields. Soybean rust seems to have had little play in the farm press so far this spring, after a couple years of intense coverage. One of our group piped up and asked what we might say about rust, if anything, in the newsletter. I have to confess that the rest of us all just sort of shrugged our shoulders.
A couple hours later, we're breaking a significant rust story on our affiliated Web site, stopsoybeanrust.com.
The story reports on the first Asian soybean rust finding of 2007 in Louisiana. There have been 20 other findings of soybean rust in four other states so far this year. The significance of today's report, though, is that the finding is 53 days ahead of last year's first find in the state, and that Louisiana proved to be a source of rust for the Mid-South and Midwest last year, according to Clayton A. Hollier of Louisiana State University.
Hollier said the same sort of northward movement could occur this year, "especially if the weather is wetter than last year’s."
In the meantime, recent rains and predicted showers likely will produce more development of soybean rust in Louisiana, Hollier said.
Stay tuned. We're writing about rust early.
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