Describe the Issue or Situation.

In the last few year, red crown rot (RCR) has become a larger problem across the United States, including in Kentucky. Since then, we have found it in several counties in the soybean growing region of Kentucky. This disease can be severely disease limiting in these fields. I recently had the opportunity to present research we are doing at the University of Kentucky on seed treatments hat may be able to help prevent or lessen RCR on soybean. 

Describe the Outreach or Educational Program Response (and Partners, if applicable).

The program, response was to start doing studies to see exactly how this disease would affect Kentucky farmers. We have also starting presenting information about this disease to educate our country agents to help them recognize this disease against other common diseases that may look similar in the field. This specific research is to help manage RCR in the field, and bring that information to the farmers and other professionals.  

Provide the Number and Description(s) of Participants/Target Audience.

The outreach is to other researchers, professors, students and company representatives across the soybean growing regions in the United States. For this presentation, we had about 100 people listening.

Provide a Statement of Outcomes or Program Impact. Please note that the outcomes statement must use evaluation data to describe the change(s) that occurred in individuals, groups, families, businesses, or in the community because of the program/outreach.

The short term outcome of this outreach is the immediate knowledge gained for this disease and some of the strategies that we could use to help combat this disease in the field setting. This presentation has several years of data, over different locations. This research that is being done in Kentucky will not only help Kentucky farmers, but farmers in the US. 

This presentation also helped showcase how this disease is different than other diseases that may be similar in the field. This is important because different diseases need different management systems. The first step to managing a disease is being able to correctly identify what the disease is.