Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, USA
January 20, 2016
A full slate of yield comparison trials with ILeVO® seed treatment across U.S. soybean growing states in 2015 has reinforced the positive results from three years of previous research in the product’s record of disease and nematode suppression. An average yield benefit of 6.5 bu/A for soybeans treated with ILeVO was observed in 33 trials with above ground symptoms of Sudden Death Syndrome (SDS). Even trials with little or no above ground symptoms of SDS showed an average yield benefit of 2.9 bu/A with ILeVO across 95 trials.
“The results from the 2015 trials futher confirm what we’ve already seen in previous years,” says Kerry Grossweiler, Bayer product manager. “SDS has become an increasingly devastating yield and profit robber in soybean production areas throughout almost every growing region in the U.S. over the past 40 years,” he says. “If soybean cyst nematodes are also a factor, the potential yield loss is even greater because injury to the roots provides an easy access point for fungal infection.”
SDS was first documented in Arkansas in 1971 and has since spread to almost every soybean growing state in the U.S., as well as Ontario, Canada, with devastating consequences. Yield losses are greater when the disease develops in the early reproductive stages of plant growth. The incidence and severity are compounded when soybeans are planted early in wet, cool soils. Initial damage often goes unnoticed as the soilborne fungus Fusarium virgulifome begins infecting roots out of sight before the critical reproductive period and only shows up visually above ground as a discoloration in the leaves later in the season.
In 2014, the damage caused by SDS cost soybean growers more than 60 million bushels in lost yield, second only to the damage caused by the soybean cyst nematode (SCN) and nearly equal to the losses associated with general seedling diseases.
ILeVO is the only seed treatment with activity against SDS as well as seed-zone activity against soybean cyst nematode (SCN). It also protects against other nematode species such as root-knot, reniform, root lesion and lance.
ILeVO stops infection of the roots early in the season reducing the incidence and severity of above ground symptoms later in the season. “While ILeVO will not completely eradicate disease symptoms from a field, the incidence will be lowered and plants will maintain leaves longer, resulting in greater nutritional uptake for healthier pods & bigger seeds that lead to increased yields,” Grossweiler says.
Early protection is the key to optimize yields even with seed varieties that offer some measure of disease and nematode resistance.
“There are currently no seed varieties that offer complete protection from disease and nematodes,” Grossweiler says. “ILeVO complements seed varieties, increasing early season vigor and enabling plants to reach their full yield potential. Growers can plant earlier with less risk of reduced yields from disease and nematode pressure.”
ILeVO is available as part of a seed treatment package with Bayer product Poncho®/VOTiVO®, and when paired with seedling disease base fungicide seed treatments, provides powerful protection against the top three soybean diseases – soybean cyst nematode, sudden death syndrome and seedling disease. In 2015 trials against competitive products, the ILeVO and Poncho/VOTIVO combination out performed by five bu/A across 54 university trials.
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