New Tool To Fight SDS

New Tool To Fight SDS

Soybean growers will be trying to get every bushel of yield this year, and now there is a new tool to help fight the yield robbers that impacted Indiana fields last season. Bayer Crop Science has ILeVO® Seed Treatment available for the 2015 growing season. John Carlson with Bayer says the fungicide works on two major yield robbers, “This fungicide has action against the cyst nematode, the No. 1 yield robbing pest, as well as Sudden Death Syndrome (SDS), the No. 4 yield robbing pest.”

As a seed treatment, ILeVO®  gets to the plant early which is when SDS does the most damage, “Initial infections occur on the roots and crowns of young soybean plants as early as the seedling stage. This is why a seed treatment is so effective against the fungus.”   Carlson said, not only is the new fungicide effective against cyst nematode and SDS, but also helps control root rot. Yield losses that are commonly reported are 20 to 30 percent of a crop, but cases have occurred where yields were reduced by greater than 70 percent due to SDS.

Until now, there were no seed varieties with absolute resistance to SDS or effective chemical treatment options on the market. Recently approved by the EPA, ILeVO® provides  breakthrough protection for soybean seedlings from SDS. In Bayer SeedGrowth™ research and field trials, ILeVO seed treatment has shown excellent activity against early-season infection in soybeans which reduces the incidence and severity of the impact SDS has later in the season.