Soybean Disease Loss Estimates from the United States and Ontario, Canada — 2022

*This data was updated May 3, 2023.

Each year, soybean diseases reduce yield in the United States and Ontario, Canada. The importance of these diseases varies annually as many factors influence which diseases affect grain yield. These factors can include environment, production practices, and a variety’s susceptibility to disease.

The current publication provides the estimated annual soybean yield losses as a result of soybean diseases during the 2022 season for the major soybean-producing areas in the United States and Ontario, Canada. Extension, university, USDA plant pathologists, and/or soybean specialists from each state and province provided the estimates. These reports accounted for approximately 99.9 percent of the total soybean production in the United States and 100 percent of production from Ontario in 2022. The estimated losses include those caused by foliar diseases, stem diseases, nematodes, seedling blights, and diseases of harvested grain.

Disease loss estimates are gathered using several different methods which most typically include disease surveys; interactions with Extension, university, government, industry, and farmer representatives; and personal experience with disease losses. Estimation methods vary by state or province.

Values for soybean disease losses are based on yield before estimated losses occurred for each state or province and are determined using the formula (harvested bushels/[{100 – percent estimated disease loss}/100]). Next, the formula ([percent loss/100] x yield before estimated loss) is used for determination of bushels lost for each participating state or province. Additional information on yield and economic losses due to soybean diseases can be found at the CPN Field Crop Disease Loss Calculator. 

2022 Production

The United States produced nearly 4.3 billion bushels of soybean in 2022, a slight decrease compared to 2021 production (Figure 1). Ontario, Canada, produced 146.8 million bushels in 2022.

2022 Disease Losses

In all, 4.4 percent of the potential estimated soybean production (bushels/acre) in 2022 was lost due to disease from the 29 soybean-producing U.S. states, and 5.3 percent of the total estimated soybean bushels in 2022 were lost due to disease in Ontario, Canada. Table 1 provides yield loss estimates for the specific diseases throughout the soybean production system in the U.S. and Ontario, Canada. The 2022 estimated percent losses from soybean disease in the U.S. are the lowest observed out of 27 years of available data. Percent losses have been declining annually in Ontario from a high of 13.0 percent in 2018 to the 5.3 percent loss in 2022.

Table 1. Estimated soybean yield losses from diseases in 29 soybean producing states in the United States and Ontario, Canada in 2022, listed in order of most to least losses in each disease category.

¹Lance, root lesion, spiral, sting, and stubby root. Only root lesion nematode was reported in Ontario, Canada; ²A portion of the estimated yield loss value for purple seed stain in the U.S. is due to dockage from low quality seed reported from New York; ³Soybean mosaic, soybean vein necrosis, and tobacco streak. Only soybean mosaic was reported in Ontario, Canada; ⁴A portion of the estimated yield loss value for Diaporthe (Phomopsis) seed decay in the U.S. is due to dockage from low quality seed reported from New York. The estimated yield loss value for Diaporthe (Phomopsis) seed decay from Ontario is due to dockage from low quality seed.

Diseases in the Northern United States

The northern states in the U.S., which included Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, New York, North Dakota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, and Wisconsin, accounted for 71.3 percent of the total estimated U.S. yield losses in 2022. Because approximately three-quarters of U.S. soybean production occurs in the northern states, disease losses in these states greatly affect the overall importance of different diseases across the country (see Table 2). However, dry conditions in soybean production areas in 2022, as well as in 2021 and 2020, likely resulted in less disease loss than previously observed to occur in the northern region. There were no foliar diseases among the top yield-reducing diseases in 2022 for the northern region.

Table 2. Estimated soybean yield losses due to the five most significant diseases in the northernmost U.S. states¹ in 2022.

¹Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, New York, North Dakota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, and Wisconsin.

Diseases in the Southern United States

Soybean cyst nematode, root-knot nematode, and Cercospora leaf blight caused the most estimated yield losses in 2022 in the southernmost U.S., which included Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia (see Table 3).

Table 3. Estimated soybean yield losses due to the five most significant diseases in the southernmost U.S. states¹ in 2022.

¹Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia.

Diseases in Ontario, Canada

Soybean cyst nematode caused the greatest estimated yield loss in Ontario, Canada, in 2022, followed by sudden death syndrome and seedling diseases (see Table 4). These were also the top three yield-reducing diseases in 2021.

Table 4. Estimated soybean yield losses due to the five most significant diseases in Ontario, Canada in 2022.

Disclaimer

The yield losses estimated in this publication were provided by members of the North Central Research and Extension Activity (NCERA) 137 Soybean Disease Committee and the Southern Soybean Disease Workers. The information contained in the current publication is meant to be used as a guide. The values in this publication are estimates and are not intended to be used as exact measurements of soybean yield losses due to plant diseases. However, these data provide valuable insight into the ranking of importance of a given disease within a production region (north or south) as well as across the entire production system. The most appropriate means available were used to estimate disease losses and no liability resulting from the use of these estimates is assumed.

Additional information on yield and economic losses due to soybean diseases can be found at the CPN Field Crop Disease Loss Calculator. 

Acknowledgements

Authors

Tom Allen, Mississippi State University; Daren Mueller, Iowa State University; and Adam Sisson, Iowa State University 

Contributors

Ed Sikora, Auburn University; Travis Faske and Terry Spurlock, University of Arkansas; Alyssa Koehler, University of Delaware; Nick Dufault and Ian Small, University of Florida; Bob Kemerait, University of Georgia; Chelsea Harbach, University of Illinois; Jason Bond, Southern Illinois University; Darcy Telenko, Purdue University; Daren Mueller, Iowa State University; Rodrigo Onofre, Kansas State University; Carl Bradley, University of Kentucky; Boyd Padgett, Trey Price, and Tristan Watson, Louisiana State University; Marty Chilvers, Michigan State University; Dean Malvick, University of Minnesota; Tom Allen, Mississippi State University; Mandy Bish, University of Missouri; Dylan Mangel, University of Nebraska; Gary Bergstrom, Cornell University; Rachel Vann, North Carolina State University; Samuel Markell, North Dakota State University; Horacio Lopez-Nicora, The Ohio State University; Josh Lofton, Oklahoma State University; Albert Tenuta, Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs; Alyssa Collins, Paul Esker, and Greg Roth, Pennsylvania State University; John Mueller and Michael Plumblee, Clemson University; Madalyn Shires, South Dakota State University; Heather Kelly, University of Tennessee; Tom Isakeit, Texas A&M University; David Langston and Yuan Zeng, Virginia Tech; and Damon Smith, University of Wisconsin-Madison. 

Reviewers

Andrew Friskop, North Dakota State University; Travis Faske, University of Arkansas; and Kiersten Wise, University of Kentucky.

Production data from the United States Department of Agriculture-National Agriculture Statistics Service and the Statistics Canada.

United States Department of Agriculture National Agricultural Statistics Service. Quick Stats Database. Accessed 7 and 16 March 2023.

Statistics Canada. Table 32-10-0359-01 Estimated areas, yield, production, average farm price and total farm value of principal field crops, in metric and imperial units. Accessed 8 March 2023.

Sponsors

The authors thank the United Soybean Board and the Grain Farmers of Ontario for their support. Support also was provided by State and Federal Funds appropriated to the State Land Grant Institutions of cooperating authors and the United States Department of Agriculture - National Institute of Food and Agriculture (USDA-NIFA).