Planting Soybeans Early: Measuring Pest Abundance and Seed Treatment Efficacy Under Adverse Conditions
The move toward earlier soybean planting offers potential yield benefits, but also some risks. These risks include early season pest pressures. Insecticidal and fungicidal seed treatments are the first line of defense against insect and disease pests of soybeans under these challenging environmental conditions. One key, unresolved question that will be addressed during the presentation is how seed treatment longevity in plant tissues is affected by cold and wet field soils. These data will be presented along with insect pest abundance and damage data from the field.
Speaker
Christian Krupke
Christian Krupke is a professor in the Dept of Entomology at Purdue University. He completed his doctoral degree in entomology at Washington State University in 2004, and since 2005 has worked at Purdue with responsibilities in insect pest management in field crops (i.e. corn, soybeans, wheat and other small grains), where he leads active applied research and extension programs. Dr. Krupke also teaches a graduate level course in Integrated Pest Management (IPM). His research has focused upon elucidating the strengths and weaknesses of the primary pest management approaches used in corn and soybeans, with special focus upon Bt corn and neonicotinoid seed treatments of corn and soybeans. He has published over 50 peer-reviewed manuscripts and given dozens of talks on these subjects to fellow researchers, members of USDA, EPA, USFWS, and a range of stakeholder groups including growers of these commodities, beekeepers, and a wide range of conservation organizations.