[Scene opens with shot of soybean field and text overlaid “Ontario’s 2018 Season: Diseases”. Scene switches to a shot of Marijke Van Andel (Agronomic Sales Rep) standing in a field speaking to the camera. Electronic music plays in the background.]
MARIJKE: Hey, my name is Marijke Van Andel and I'm an Agronomic Sales Rep with Syngenta and I'm here today just outside of Drumbo, Ontario to talk about the five things in soybeans that I think have been most interesting this year. And one that I think is really interesting this year is how much SDS that we've seen. SDS has shown up in places where we historically have not seen SDS and at this farm as well in Drumbo, there's quite a bit of SDS here. 
[Scene switches to a shot of Marijke holding a diseased leaf. Scene switches back to Marijke standing in the field speaking to the camera. Scene switches between closeup and zoomed out shots of Marijke holding soybean plant roots.]
MARIJKE: This is very classic symptomology of SDS. This has been an area where we historically haven't seen it. And that's because often times SDS has been associated with soybean cyst nematode and this is not an area where we've had a lot of soil sampled for SCN. And I believe that there's more SCN out here in this area than we think there is. So that's going to be a project this fall, is just selectively soil sampling some of these locations where we see SDS and seeing how much SCN there is there as well. But a little bit about SDS: like why are we seeing so much this year? Typically, when we have cool wet conditions at planting, that's when SDS can be a problem because it's a Fusarium species that will infect the root system early - as soon as that seedling begins to grow we can get infection. So now we have a bit of a degraded root system that Fusarium species has been colonizing this root system from the beginning. But why we're seeing so much symptomology now, is that the Fusarium species produces a toxin that gets shot up into the leaves and causes the interveinal chlorosis and necrosis and because of all the rain that we've had this August it's just creating that perfect environment to produce that toxin and bring it up to the leaf system. So what do you do about it? I'm definitely thinking about “What can we do at planting?”, is a first step and planting into fit soil conditions. But also knowing, “Do we have soybean cyst nematode in that field?” Because then we can do something about that. Your first line of defense always though, is genetics. Varieties have different tolerances to SDS and also to soybean cyst nematode. And there are seed treatments available now for for both SCN and SDS. So at Syngenta we have a product called Mertect which is a seed treatment for SDS. We have a seed treatment called the Clariva which is a nematicide for soybean cyst nematode. So that's definitely one of the things I've found pretty interesting this year. Another thing is white mould. And definitely white mould is not a big issue this year, especially when we compare it to last year to 2017, but white mould is showing up. And I believe we're seeing this because with all these later rains - these August rains - the beans re-flowered. So we saw a lot of flowers once that bean flowered up to the top, set those pods, it actually in August went and re-flowered again. 
[Scene switches to a closeup shot of Marijke holding a diseased soybean plant. Scene switches back to Marijke standing in the field speaking to the camera. Scene switches to a shot of a soybean plant showing symptoms of phytophthora root rot.]
MARIJKE: So now we have that susceptible tissue for white mould to infect. And we see that white mould coming and low in the canopy. It would have been really difficult to protect those flowers as well with with a lush canopy like this. So white mould again. We're seeing it this year. You should actually start to see a little bit more popping up because that initial infection will spread to other plants beside it and we could see some more. Definitely again white mould always something to be top of mind and we need to think about population and genetics, that row spacing, and putting a fungicide on like Allegro. Allegro is a great fungicide option to protect this this yield from that disease. The last topic I wanted to mention today that I think has been pretty interesting this year has been phytophthora root rot. Especially since how dry it was in June and July in a lot of parts of Ontario, to see the amount of phytophthora root rot that we've been seeing has been interesting. And in some cases it's several plants together an area or in some case, it's just plants here and there. But if phytophthora root rot is another one of those yield robbers that root system can be degraded and we don't always see all the above-ground damage. Again genetics is key. Selecting the right genetics to provide that protection against phytophthora root rot. When you look in your seed guide, you'll have both a gene in some cases for phytophthora root rot, and you'll have field tolerance. The gene is expressed early on as soon as that soybean seed germinates and is expressed in that seedling. That's what protects you against that early season phytophthora infection. Then the field tolerance is what carries you through the rest of the season, so having good field tolerance is also very important and that information is available in our NK seed guide. The other thing is a seed treatment can really protect against Phytophthora and Apron XL is metalaxyl-m, that can be topped up and provide more protection against Phytophthora root rot. So what does this all mean for the 2019 season? What should we be looking at this fall? So certainly we have to open up those seed guides and understand the genetics that were that we're looking at. And what kind of resistance do we have against SDS and white mould and Phytophthora root rot. So genetics is key and choosing that right variety for the right acre will really help move to that next level of growing a better soybean crop. So hopefully those are a couple of tips and things that you can think about as you prepare for the 2019 growing season. Syngenta reps are happy to help if you have any questions. We certainly do want to help you make the right decision for your farm to help you grow the best soybean crop that you can. 
[Scene switches to white with text overlay “For more information, visit Syngenta.ca, contact our Customer Interaction Centre at 1-87-SYNGENTA (1-877-964-3682), or follow @SyngetaCanada on Twitter.]