The Dakotan: This is Ag Issues with Neil Roberts. Neil Roberts: Welcome to another edition of Ag Issues. Our guest this week is NDSU, plants pathologist Sam Markell. And Sam, we're talking soybean disease issues again today. And you're telling me that there's a $1.5 billion loss to scan each year? That's staggering. Sam Markell: Yeah, that number is huge. And so it's CNS soybean cyst nematode and that one and a half billion dollar loss as the U.S. soybean crop. I mean, that's a really high percentage of what we produce. And this disease has been around since the fifties. And since that time, it has expanded almost every soybean growing region we've got. And it showed up in North Dakota in 23, 2004 was our first fine probably a few years earlier that it found. And it's continued to march across the state. So this particular thing is really kind of insidious. You know, it's a it's a nematode parasite on the roots. So when you get it in a field, you often don't see unhealthy plants. The plants above ground, they look pretty good and they look green, they look healthy, look thick and lush and normal. Unless you have a really high yield loss. But because that leaves on the roots, you got to get down to the roots to find it. And so you can start to see yellow spots pop up maybe in August. But the best way to figure out if you've got soybean cyst nematode is to soil sample at the end of the season. Neil Roberts: All right. Good stuff, Sam. Hey, we'll talk sudden death syndrome when we come back. The Dakotan: You're listening to Ag Issues with Neil Roberts on the Dakotan network. Neil Roberts: Talking soybeans with India. Sam, our call today on ag issues. And Sam, tell us about sudden death syndrome. Sam Markell: Yeah, sudden death syndrome is another pathogen and it is intimately linked to soybean cyst nematode. No, sudden death syndrome is a fungal pathogen that infects through the roots. But if soybean cyst nematode gets in there, the damage will be much worse. It's only found in two counties in North Dakota so far. But over time, if we don't proactively manage this season, this could be a problem as well. Neil Roberts: All right, thanks, Sam. Awesome stuff, as usual. And that will conclude this edition until next time. I'm Neil Roberts. The Dakotan: You're listening to the Dakotan Network. Real. Honest. Local news.
