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Southern rust found migrating north into more Corn Belt plots
 
By STAN MADDUX
Indiana Correspondent
 
MICHIGAN CITY, Ind. — Farmers in the Corn Belt are advised to prepare for attack by southern rust marching its way north.
 
The disease can quickly decimate corn yields, especially for crops planted late in the season, but early detection and proper chemicals can help win the battle. Also lending assistance is a newly launched system in which users of Twitter can document and track southern rust and other diseases in corn and soybeans to help with quick response.

Photos of crop diseases and their exact location can be uploaded by farmers after scouting their fi elds, by tweeting the information to Twitter accounts @corndisease or @soydisease. The effort was spearheaded by the Integrated Pest Information Platform for Education and Extension, or iPiPE.

“Much like weather forecasting, we think this project can be used as a preventative strategy that farmers can use to get ahead of the ‘storm,’ regarding crop diseases,” said Daren Mueller, associate professor and extension plant pathology specialist at Iowa State University.

There are documented reports of southern rust just recently crossing over from Kentucky into Indiana and Ohio. The disease has also started building a presence in Illinois and Iowa, while entomologists in Kansas and Nebraska report a substantial push by the disease typically associated with just the South into their states.

Southern rust develops from an aggressive
fungus that can cause disease rapidly,
particularly in certain young corn hybrids under warm and humid conditions.

Plants closer to harvest are not as susceptible because of the higher tolerance level in older plants, but with many fi elds this year planted late because of a wet spring there is heightened concern about the potential impact on yields come fall.

“The disease risk is relative to the corn’s growth stage,” said Carl Bradley, a University of Kentucky extension plant pathologist with the College of Agriculture, Food and Environment.

“Late-planted corn is defi nitely at a risk for yield loss.”

Corn plants are more susceptible to the disease while tasseling, silking and even into blister. In the Corn Belt, only the less threatening common rust usually has to be addressed, so farmers in those states are urged to begin scouting their fi elds and to know the difference between the two diseases.

According to Purdue University, the pustules in common rust are typically brown to brownish-red, elongated in shape and appear on scattered on the upper and lower leaf surfaces. In contrast, southern rust pustules are orange to light brown, smaller, round and more densely packed mostly on the upper leaf surface.

Currently, southern rust in the Corn Belt has migrated primarily to the southern and central parts of the states. 

In Indiana, though, the disease is suspected to have turned up near Fort Wayne in the northeastern corner. Gene Matzat, an educator with Purdue extension, said there’s been no sign of the disease to his knowledge elsewhere in the northern quadrant of Indiana.

He said early detection is vital because the disease, once on the leaves, cannot be removed from the plant but quick application of a fungicide can spare the rest of the crop. The disease attacks the health of the plant by stopping the process of photosynthesis that converts sunlight into energy. “It’ll shut down the plant,” explained Matzat.

Entomologists recommend farmers scout their fields until the end of August because of the weather often being extremely hot and humid this month, and
ideal for the rapid spread of the disease. 
8/10/2017