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Dry 2020 likely exacerbates Soybean Cyst Nematode pressure going forward
Dry conditions last year are expected to support the expansion of Soybean Cyst Nematode.
Greg Tylka is a nematologist at Iowa State University and co-leader of the SCN Coalition.
“We’ve learned over the years, and it’s been borne out by research results, that Soybean Cyst Nematode seems to kick it into high gear for reproduction in dry soils.”
For a state like Iowa, where every county except one was in some category of drought in 2020, he tells Brownfield SCN is a concern.
“That’s got us worried for 2022 in particular, assuming that most of those soybean fields in 2020 would be in corn in 2021.”
Tylka says there are new counties in 11 states that discovered SCN this past year including Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, South Dakota, and Nebraska.
The SCN Coalition estimates Soybean Cyst Nematode causes yield losses of more than $1.5 billion annually.
