The Dakotan: This is Ag Issues with Neil Roberts. Neil Roberts: Welcome to another edition of Ag Issues. Our guest this week is NDSU crop protection specialist T.J. Prochaska from the North Central Research Extension Center. And T.J., the soybean aphid has been detected in North Dakota recently. Give us the details. TJ Prochaska: That's correct. Our India issue extension IPM scout Tommy Crompton out of Fargo found our first detection out insurgent county in southeastern North Dakota. On June the 20th. This is pretty early for soybean aphid detection. Traditionally, soybean aphid arrival would be second, third week of July. So, this is quite early As we look forward, we'll want to start thinking about what types of steps do we need to take to protect our soybean crop from the harmful effects of soybean aphid. Neil Roberts: All right. Good stuff. T.J. And we'll have that and much more on the soybean aphid when we come back. The Dakotan: You're listening to Ag Issues with Neil Roberts on the Dakotan Network. Neil Roberts: Talking the soybean aphid with T.J. Prochaska today on ag issues. And T.J., what do the numbers look like right now? TJ Prochaska: Luckily, this early detection, the numbers appear pretty low. With that being said, we're quite a bit earlier than normal over the next week, especially in low lying areas like river bottoms and in areas where they're overwintering host. The common bug during our present. I consider starting your scouting protocols as we get to the northern parts of North Dakota. We might be two to three weeks out from some of those protocols. When you think about economic threshold, that's 250 aphids per plant. However, the most important time of protecting your soybean against soybean, if it is usually late vegetated to early reproductive. So at the current moment, no treatment is recommended at this time as insecticides could harm predators and other parasite in the field. So scouting will be key right now. Neil Roberts: All right. Good stuff as always, T.J. thanks for that. And that brings this edition to a close. Until next time. I'm Neil Robert. The Dakotan: You're listening to the Dakotan Network. Real. Honest. Local news.
