Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station, University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture
Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences

A newsletter for faculty, staff and students

September-October 2005 • Vol. 31, No. 5

Asian soybean rust top topic at Pine Tree field day

Asian soybean rust topped the list of topics during a field day at the University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture Pine Tree Branch Experiment Station Tuesday (Aug. 16).

Dr. Dick Oliver describes the benefits of weed management during a field day at the University of Arkansas Pine Tree Branch Experiment Station on Tuesday (Aug. 16).

“There is no soybean rust in Arkansas,” said Dr. Chris Tingle, Extension soybean specialist.

During a crop update and summary of soybean studies, Tingle said soybean rust had been detected only in Florida, Georgia, Alabama and eastern Mississippi. Even so, he said, it was necessary to remain vigilant in scouting for the disease in Arkansas.

“Asian soybean rust is probably the greatest threat to Arkansas soybeans that hasn’t happened,” said Dr. Rick Cartwright, Extension plant pathologist.

Dry weather in Arkansas has helped suppress foliar diseases this year and likely will inhibit spread of rust should it arrive in the state, he said. The fungi that cause these diseases require consistently damp environments to grow and damage crop plants.

A working group of Division of Agriculture scientists working with APHIS and the State Plant Board have been educating producers about how to combat soybean rust, Cartwright said. They have also worked with producers to plant sentinel plots and take other actions aimed at early detection of the disease in the state.

Dr. John Rupe, plant pathologist for the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station, said soybeans are planted about a month earlier than normal in sentinel plots.

“The disease really takes off during the reproductive stage of the plant,” Rupe said. That’s the point at which rust is most easily detected. The sentinel plots will reach flowering earlier than the state’s soybean crop and, should the disease arrive, producers will have about a month’s warning before their crops are hit hard by rust.

“That gives us time to apply fungicides before rust can damage yields,” Rupe said.

Visitors to the field day also toured test plots and heard presentations about research and extension programs in rice and soybean breeding and production, corn, sorghum and small grains production, and weed control.

Roger Eason, director of the Pine Tree Station, said the Division of Agriculture had reactivated the former Beef Substation at Newport, using about 60 acres for rice research plots.

“The soil in Jackson County is different from other rice-growing areas,” Eason said. “Data from research here and other Division locations was not serving rice farmers around Newport, so we opened those plots to better meet the information needs of rice production in that area of the state.”

Eason said plans are to expand research plots into more of the substation’s 480 acres over the coming years. He said a two-story office building on the property may also be used to house the Jackson County Extension Office.

About 120 producers and agricultural industry representatives turned out for the field day, which concluded with a catfish and barbecue lunch.