A south-central Iowa farmer says disease pressure in soybeans has been alarming.
“There’s sudden death syndrome all over the place,” said Steve Kuiper of Knoxville.
Kuiper says SDS arrived much earlier than he expected this year. He says the disease is typically found in late August or early September.
“You start to see these brown patches out in soybean fields. In our area here, I’ve seen several farmers that have a very large amount of sudden death in the field. It’s more than I’ve ever seen before.”
Kuiper tells Brownfield he’s also been finding SDS in fields where he has utilized seed treatments and fungicide applications.
“Those beans are essentially dying really early. There will be a significant yield drop in those patches that have sudden death.”
He says he plans to do some more vertical tilling next spring to help mitigate SDS during the 2026 growing season.
