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More Samples Being Tested For Rust

Four leaf samples taken from Louisiana and one from Mississippi may have soybean rust, but the further incidences of the disease have not yet been confirmed, a member of USDA’s soybean rust assessment team told DTN News on Friday.

X.B. Yang, an Iowa State University plant pathologist says that based on his experience with the fungus, three of the five samples will probably test positive.

Yang says the fungus has probably spread to other parts of Louisiana, but the assessment team has had only two days to search for samples.

USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, working cooperatively with the Louisiana Department of Agriculture and Forestry and officials with Louisiana State University, has begun surveillance and sample collection activities within a 50-mile radius of the initial detection.

Splitting into four teams on Thursday, scientists scoured 14 Louisiana parishes and one Mississippi county for the fungus.

At this time, USDA officials believe that the occurrence of this pathogen is related to the recent active hurricane season based on preliminary evidence derived from predictive models. These predictive models also indicate that it's likely that rust spores could have made landfall throughout the Gulf Coast region.

Editors note: Richard Brock, The Corn and Soybean Digest's Marketing Editor, is president of Brock Associates, a farm market advisory firm, and publisher of The Brock Report.

To see more market perspectives, visit Brock's Web site at www.brockreport.com.