Update from the south: During the last two weeks there have been 30 new counties with soybean rust reports. These include 3 in Florida, 2 in Alabama, 8 in Louisiana, and 17 in Mississippi.  Most of these infections have been at low incidence and severity levels.

Iowa diseases: We continue to see a smorgasbord of diseases in Iowa soybean fields – pretty much everything except soybean rust!!

Modeling predictions: Soybean rust’s late season push is coming to fruition as our soybean crop nears R6 (the time when we quit caring about soybean rust). This is the same trend we have seen for the most part over the past several years. Over the next few weeks most of Iowa’s soybean crop will reach R6. There is little to no chance that soybean rust will get to Iowa and build to damaging levels before that time, despite the new finds in the South. XB Yang’s model predicts that spore movement is likely as far north as southern Illinois.