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White mold historically bad in southeast Minnesota

A southeast Minnesota farmer says white mold in soybeans is as bad as he’s ever seen.

Michael Petefish grows corn and soybeans near Claremont, in a region where the plant disease has been especially common.

“This area has a lot of 20 inch rows.  It seems like those (fields) are experiencing a little bit worse white mold.  Guys that got in early (and planted) narrower rows, (their soybeans) canopied sooner.  And we’re seeing a lot of white mold damage on our fields and on neighbor’s fields.”

He tells Brownfield white mold has reduced soybean yields by as much as 40 bushels per acre, and says he’s not sure what to expect this fall.

“We had a field impacted that was as much as  40 bushels per acre, from parts of the field with zero white mold to the worst parts that were basically dead.  So on average I don’t know if it’s quite that bad (this year), but certainly a lot of the beans have flat, tiny pods right now.  So there might be something there, but combine-ability becomes an issue too.”

Going forward, Petefish plans to select soybean varieties with strong white mold scores and proactively use fungicides.