Pest and disease levels continue to be low in soybean test plots across Pennsylvania.

Penn State Extension educators are regularly scouting 30 or so “typical” soybean fields in 23 counties across the state, reporting the populations of plant pathogens and insect pests they find.

The goal is to inform the agricultural community of what pests are active across the state and to give farmers a sense of what to expect when they scout their own fields as part of an IPM program.

The Soybean Sentinel Plot Program is being funded by the Pennsylvania Soybean Promotion Board and managed by Penn State’s Department of Entomology.

Grasshoppers and Japanese beetles are active in most fields, though amounts of damage remain low and have not exceeded economic threshold for defoliating species, which is 25% across an entire field.

During reproductive stages of soybean, this defoliator threshold drops to 15%. Many fields also have soybean aphid, of which the economic threshold is 250 aphids per plant across an entire field.

As for diseases, septoria brown spot was commonly reported, but others have made appearances, including downy mildew and frogeye.

Here are reports by date and county. Pests that were found during scouting are listed with their severity, which is rated on a 1-10 scale with 10 being the highest. A severity score of 1 equates to 10% or less infestation or defoliation, a score of 2 aligns with 20% or less infestation or defoliation, and so on.

Lebanon County, five fields

Growth stage: R3

Lancaster County, near Landisville

Growth stage: R3

Crawford County

Growth stage: V8

McKean County

Growth stage: V3

Potter County, near Ellisburg

Growth stage: R1

Potter County, south of Galeton

Growth stage: R3

Franklin County

Growth stage: R2

Centre County

Growth stage: R1

Dauphin County

Growth stage: R1

Perry County

Growth stage: V1/2

Source: Penn State, which is solely responsible for the information provided and is wholly owned by the source. Informa Business Media and all its subsidiaries are not responsible for any of the content contained in this information asset.