Update from the South: There were no new finds in the U.S. this past week.

Iowa sentinel plots: We have received our first sentinel plots samples and over half of the samples had Septoria brown spot.  This is the earliest that I have seen brown spot.  If this rainy weather continues, this inoculum could cause brown spot levels not typically seen in Iowa.  Oh yeah, none of the samples had soybean rust. 

Forecasting for Iowa: I received a few calls asking if soybean rust will be more of a problem because of the abundance of water. My answer was “remember the disease triangle” – which is the standard answer by a plant pathologist when they really don’t know.  Really, soybean rust could be more of a problem with these frequent rains IF the inoculum was in Iowa and if soybean plants were at a susceptible stage (reproductive stages).  But for right now, no, soybean rust is not a disease we are concerned about until it builds up in the south.