Treating Southern Soybeans with Neonicotinoids Yields Economic Benefits After All
April 20, 2016
Editor’s Note: The complete article “Value of Neonicotinoid Insecticide Seed Treatments in Mid-South Soybean (Glycine max) Production Systems,” by is available from the Journal of Entomology here.
From: Entomology Today
A bean leaf beetle (Cerotoma trifurcata) on soybean. Photo by Winston Beck, Iowa State University, Bugwood.org.
By Andrew Porterfield
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The same scientists, led by Jeff Gore, an extension/research professor at Mississippi State, recently evaluated 170 field trials on soybean fields in four southern states (Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Tennessee) over 10 years. Their meta-analysis appears in the Journal of Economic Entomology.
Gore and his colleagues discovered that treating soybean seeds with neonics (imidacloprid or thiamethoxam) and a fungicide provided higher yields than seed treatments using a fungicide only. Such treatments resulted in yields that were 203 kg/hectare higher in Louisiana, 165 kg/hectare higher in Mississippi, 112 kg/hectare higher in Arkansas, and 70 kg/hectare higher in Tennessee. Economic returns for neonic seed treatments were higher in four out of the 10 years studied. The higher yields in Louisiana and Mississippi were great enough to constitute an economic benefit for IPM practices.
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