Evaluating Return on Investment (ROI) of Disease Management Practices

Diseases are one of the main yield-limiting factors of soybean production that farmers must contend with every year. In Kentucky, estimated annual losses due to diseases over the last 5 years have averaged over 7.2 million bushels of soybeans lost, which has an approximate annual value of nearly $68 million. To protect against yield losses caused by diseases, soybean farmers often actively manage these diseases by utilizing inputs such as fungicide and nematicide seed treatments and foliar fungicides. This research project seeks to evaluate the return on investment (ROI) of different soybean disease management practices in Kentucky. This project fits the Kentucky Soybean Board’s research priority, “Reducing the cost of producing soybeans”. The results of our research will provide Kentucky soybean farmers with information that they can use to help determine which disease management practices are helping to increase ROI, and which disease management practices are not increasing ROI.