 Well, good morning, everybody, right? So what do we expect on February 1st, right? So it's the kind of weather, but things have changed over the past two years, and we are glad you could join us. And we can still learn about stuff. So today, primarily, I want to talk about management of rhizectonia diseases in sugar beet. But first of all, I would like to thank all my crew and then the sugar beet co-operatives and the ag staff, especially, you know, they're in constant touch throughout the growing season. You know, when they see something in the field, you know, they're always willing to see what it is and how to best help you guys. So first thing I always talk about, right? We just need to understand what's going on in our particular fields. So for example, in this field, the Grover third last time he had sugar beets, you know, it looked like rhizectonia rutra. So the next time he planted sugar beets, he was also curious, like most of you. So he planted two different varieties here. As you can see the difference, right? So it's not really rhizectonia that was killing the sugar beets. It's more of a fissurium that's causing the issue. But one of the variety had better tolerance for fissurium, which you can actually see here, you know, how healthy it is looking compared to the other variety, which is actually susceptible to fissurium. It was strong for rhizectonia, but he could not save much of the crop by the harvest. And the other common problem with soil-borne diseases are we just probably don't deal with one disease at any time. You know, it's a mixture of at least two or three diseases. But the limiting factor would be soil moisture, especially. And because we have this warmness and then the temperature, the soil is pretty warm by the time we go into late June and July. So for this particular field, we're only looking at fields with the history of rhizectonia. But look at the date, right? July 21st in 2015, you know, by this time we lost most of the plants without any seed treatment or infero fungicides here. But this field had both rhizectonia and ephanomyces. You know, after two weeks, I took the picture. There's hardly anything left in the field. So again, it's more than one. But we just need to see, you know, what's the bigger problem and then try to have our management plan. But if you think about ephanomyces, you know, once in three years can be a problem, especially when we get excess moisture, right? So in 2021, we only got 29 samples for diagnosis. You know, we know we're pretty dry. So some of the soil moisture was limiting the amount of disease that we were seeing. But again, if you look at the trend, it's very similar to the past years. We got about 17 out of 29 that were surely rhizectonia and ephanomyces. We got two fissurium samples one early in the season, one later. And some of the dry conditions can also cause issues for herbicide carryover or some other issues that we don't know anything about, right? So it's low, but rhizectonia is the number one sample. Again, looking at the rainfall up and down the valley here and then southern Minnesota, right? So we were pretty dry actually. So look at the bird island here and then the Grand Forks, right? So for this, it's pretty dry. We got a little bit of moisture in, you know, May and June. But again, I guess it's more or less normal to dry in an October we received some more rain, right? So some of the diseases based on what you answered earlier in the survey, you know, they reflect the kind of the rainfall pattern. When we think about rhizectonia, it can actually kill the beets before they even emerge out of the ground, but not since 2014 because, you know, we have more and more seed treatments labeled for this. So typically what happens is either they die before emergence or just as they emerge, just at the soil line, that's where the infection happens and then pretty soon we can lose the seedling. But anything that actually hinders the emergence can also be very good for rhizectonia. You know, some of the younger seedlings are also very susceptible. The main difference here, you know, whether it's a specialty variety or a non-specialty variety for rhizectonia, both of them are really susceptible when the seedlings are young at this stage. As you go later into the season, you know, these are really artificially inoculated research plots, but you know, it's not uncommon for me to see some, some of your fields with the severe rhizectonia. So they lose all those crowns and most of these older leaves collapse and then they just look like spiders, you know, we call these. And it's very also typical, the rhizectonia moves up and down in a row, you know, just like a serial killer, right? So the best time for you to go and scout the fields would be, you know, pick kind of the warmest part of the day and then you can see some of the older leaves they start to wilt. But if you notice, there could be one or two dead seedlings right next to it. So basically, you know, the rhizectonia has just started here and it is making its way. But if one or two seedlings have, you know, any trouble emerging, you know, either because of the residue or some other reasons, they could be more susceptible compared to the, you know, strong plant here. The prior to round-up ready sugar beads, we used to see lots and lots of crown rot and also the root rot, right? So typically we see a ladder-like pattern on the roots, you know, very dark lesions, but more and more we are seeing something like these here. You know, the crown looks very healthy and so is the very bottom part. You're seeing some root rot here. And again, here the crowns look very healthy, but the lower part of the roots are completely rotted, right? So, you know, within a couple of weeks, these plants will completely die. And what we get is rhizoctonia. It makes these resting structures. These are known as skirosia and these can stay in the soil for two to three years. So when you have like edible beans or soybeans or corn, any of these rotation crops, which are also good for rhizoctonia, that's how this inoculum is actually maintained from crop to crop. Again, some of the main points. If you think about rhizoctonia salami, there are many different anastomosis groups, but the primary ones that we are concerned right now are AG2-2. AG4 used to be some problem, especially at the seedling phase, but I don't think with all the seed treatments we have, it's any concern right now. In AG2-2, we have 3B and 4 subgroups. The only difference is 3B likes a little bit warmer temperatures compared to 4, but when it comes to how they can affect the sugar beads, there's really no difference. They both can cause equally significant damage to them. We talked about sugar beads, soybean, edible beans, corn, and actually some of the common weeds, like big weeds, which are in the same family as the sugar bead, they're also a good host for rhizoctonia. So if you listen to Dr. Peters advise and take care of weeds, you're actually taking care of some of the rhizoctonia there. And I told earlier that it can survive for two to three years, is looking at the survey, one third of you told me that, even you have wheat or small grains, you're still seeing some rhizoctonia issues. Sometimes having one year of wheat is helpful, but if you have a severe field, the inoculum could still survive for more than two years. So there will be some level of rhizoctonia when you come back to sugar beads. And if you think about the distribution, sometimes it's very random in a field, especially a lot of moderate fields. And in some fields with the severe history, you see a large patches of dying beets, that's very common. But what happens at the end of the season, you're cultivating and you're working the ground, you're actually moving this some of the inoculum around so the patches get bigger and bigger if you're not really managing this disease. And we looked at, where does rhizoctonia exist in a particular field? Most of the fields I would say in the top four inches, but when we looked at some severe rhizoctonia spots and then actual rhizoctonia was present in all the way up to six inches, right? So it just tells you that, you have higher loads of inoculum, when we have higher loads of inoculum, you tend to see the disease developing early, if you have just enough moisture. We talked about cultivation, some of you are doing cultivation to manage weeds, but again, when you throw some of the soil, basically rhizoctonia can get into the crowns and then that's where it can initiate the infections. So any management actions that you do that can reduce the inoculum buildup, it's useful for not only the sugar beet crop and it's for the rotation crops too. So so it means, it's very similar to sugar beets, right? So before even the seed emerges out of the ground, you can see some crosses on the conledon here and they don't ever make out of the ground. And even if they emerge, you can see this next process at the most of the root system is gone for soybeans. This is all from Crookston inoculated trials. And navy beans, it's a very similar pattern. Again, I told you how rhizoctonia moves up and down the row here. You can see a row of plants dying, probably this is early emerged and a little bit stronger plant here compared to some of these had some issues so you can lose those zero. So what do we do in the rotation crops, right? I mean, it's very similar to what we do in sugar beets. So if you look at our colleagues publication from an article to state from 2022, you know, some of the seed treatments and the informal fungicides and the foliar application, you know, these are also labored in sugar beets. Just follow these recommendations. And on top of this, you know, you can talk to your dealer about if there are any specialty varieties in these rotation crops that can tolerate rhizoctonia, now, which is very good for you. And when we think about rhizoctonia, we already talked about, you know, choice of the crop in the rotation and the wheat control. Most of you are already doing a three to four year rotation. But, you know, if you have a severe field, you know, your four year rotation is better compared to the three year rotation. Early planting, I know you're all eager to go and plant, you know, when the field is ready, it's really good because you're off to a good start and the soil is relatively cooler, which is not really good for rhizoctonia. And then let's look at some trials from 2021. Now, some of the results are very similar to what we have seen in the previous years. The use of resistant varieties, you know, several options for seed treatments and infra fungicides, as well as the post-emergence fungicides, right? These are just ballpark numbers here, you know? Each of you may have a different cost in terms of applications. For the seed treatments, like I said, since 2014, we've got several seed treatments labeled that have excellent efficacy for rhizoctonia. They all belong to one class. It's called succinate dehydrogen is inhibited, right? So what they do, they have a single target in the fungus that's rhizoctonia and they inhibit the respiration, right? So it cannot really read. For the seed treatments, we get cabena, vibrance, cystiva, and I think going forward in 2022, you'll have some options for Xeltera. Let's say another Sdhi compound from Vellent and Metlox feed in combination with cabena or vibrance, right? So the red ones here, they're not Sdhi. So just look at the rainfall in 2021. You know, we talked a little bit. It's so pretty dry, how dry? April through June, we got about 40 to 50% of the 10-year average and then about 40 to 50% of the 30-year average rainfall. And when we hit July, we got about 3200s, right? That's about 10% of 10 and 30 years. Then August was more or less normal and then September, it's very similar. In October, we got slightly higher rain, but it also meant that, you know, when we think about rhizoctonia, we got some disease going on in the later part of the season. So, you know, when I looked at the pattern for the samples we received, you know, we did receive some samples later in the season that were positive for rhizoctonia and it was true for stochospora here too, you know, once we got some rain, actually stochospora took off, you know, it's not as bad as in previous years, but there was some significant damage in Crookston. And looking at the, how did the seed treatments do, right? So I got the number of plants for a hundred foot of row on the Y axis and then the days after planting. So there is nothing on the seed here, the not stellar stance, right? We are looking at 150 plants for a hundred foot of row and then we lost a little bit of stance from three to four weeks after planting and then really not much activity. So these are all inoculated with rhizoctonia prior to planting. So now look at the seed treatments. So that's Cistiva here, Havina and then Vibrans, right? So exactly very similar. And Xaltera, you know, it's slightly higher compared to the seed treatments. But let's look at the statistics here, right? So, and I'll make this presentation available on the SBREB website like everybody else's so you can take your time to go through the numbers. But looking at the 28 days after planting, right? Untreated control, 138 beats and most of the existing seed treatments about 145, you know, Xaltera had slightly higher, 159, it's statistically, you know, significantly different. And when we looked at the infero fungicides, you know, typically what we do, we mix the fungicide in three gallons of water and then mix with three gallons of 1034 O and then we apply via drip tube, right? So we don't do T-band like in Michigan. It's always drip tube or the seed in the form. But one thing to keep in mind when you're using a starter fertilizer and the infero fungicides, agitation is a key thing, right? You know, some mix very well and some do not because this is just after 10 minutes. But the key is, as long as you have some good agitation system, you know, you will not have any issues for the infero fungicides. So looking at some of the ones we tested in 2021, what is it, nine and a half Louis Downs asteroid and now it's a very equivalent rate of hydroxystrobine latest at 7.1 and Xanthin, it's a combination of headline and a biological part, but you know, going forward, the BASF is not interested in pursuing these in sugar beets, but I think it's labeled for other crops and preaxur, proline and propyls, all of these actually have a label it can use as a infrared application. Again, the untreated one, I sure gave about 150 beets and a slight reduction with the inforose. So anytime it's dry, you can expect some injury as Dr. Botel's data from St. Thomas. We saw the same pattern here. Quadrants really low in terms of the stand counts early on right from the emergence. And then this is a preaxur and elitist, you know, slightly higher compared to this one asteroid. And then that's my propyls. And this is Xanthin, looked pretty safe, really high numbers early on and then it followed the trend. And then that's a proline, right? So more or less very similar except, you know, quadrants in pro here. But again, looking at the numbers, right? So 28 days after planting, untreated control, I showed you earlier, it's 138 and Xanthin had 149. So really the low stands for quadrants at 118 and elitist and preaxur, you know, they share the same letter, but they do share the same letter with the other ones like asteroid and elitist. You know, it's not very different here. So when I compared the seed treatments as a group to inferophonicides from three weeks up to six weeks, you know, the seed treatments had higher stand compared to the inferophonicides, right? It's the same trend. All these charts indicate there is a significant statistical difference. And at harvest, now we are using a new rating scale which is zero to 10. Zero is a completely healthy root and then 10 is a dead plant. It's a 91 to 100% of the root rod, right? So anytime you hit number four and above, it can be a challenge for a risectonia because you start to lose some yield. And also when you start these beats in the storage, you know, get higher respiration and you're going to have less payment, you know, for your second and third payments depending on processing. So when we look at the seed treatments and inferophonicides as two groups, the only difference we saw was in terms of percent sugar, you know, even the stand for a hundred sites, the sugar was slightly higher because the quality is a little bit better. And then I recall the sucrose per ton was also slightly higher. But when it came to RSA, there was no difference between seed treatment or inferotreatments. Again, it's pretty dry here. You know, we did not see much root rod, right? On one to 10, we're talking about 0.2 and 0.3 in 2021. The other data I wanted to show you was actually, we were actually evaluating starter fertilizers, especially 1034-0 and Paralline, which is 515-3, and inferophonicides, I know, you know, elatis, sorry for the misspelling here, and asteroid and xanthion. So we did this in 2020 and 2021 in two different trials. One I'm calling as a safety trial. It is not inoculated with rhizactonia. So we are purely looking at the crop safety and then, you know, harvest parameters. And the second trial is the efficacy. So this is the combined data for 2020 and 2021 because statistically, we were able to combine this data, right? So the only significant difference we saw, basically for starter fertilizers, right? 1034-0 is at 194 beats. This is like maximum number of plant stands per 100 foot, you know, during early time points, and Paralline is at 210 and no starts to 14. It's always the safest treatment, you know, when you think about, right? So it's less burden on the seedlings as the emerge. And then by the time we go to harvest, 178 for 1034-0, 189 and 192, right? I mean, it's about 10 to 14 beats, slightly lower for 1034-0. By the time we go to harvest, now only difference we saw actually was for the fungicides, you know, in terms of, even though in 2020, it's not in our plated trial, you know, we saw a little bit of disease developing in this particular trial. So when there was no fungicide, we looked at an 82.90 because it was a cruise per acre compared to asteroid, 89.73 and latest 87.00 and Xanthin was slightly lower, that's 85.00. So this is the only difference we saw when we looked at, you know, different starter parallelizers and infrared fungicides across two years. Now I want to move on to the efficacy, right? Exact same treatments, but we inoculated these parts with rhizoctonia at 50 kilograms per hectare. But in terms of the trial location is slightly different because this efficacy trial is on a two year rotation, which has, you know, significantly higher risk for rhizoctonia, even though we inoculated this, you know, there's some background inoculum in this particular field, right? So the data is different for 2020 and 2021. So it's shown separately here. So the number of plants stands for harvest. So for asteroid, 116, elitis and Xanthin, right? So statistically very similar, whereas no fungicide at 94 plants. And in 2021, you know, same field, you know, just a two year rotation, but now hardly any disease pressure, 198 to 199, 174, for the no fungicide, right? So on a zero to 10 scale rating, in 2020, no fungicide had 4.9 compared to any of these fungicides. So especially as oxystrobene containing fungicides were slightly better compared to Xanthin, but whereas 2021, you know, everything is inoculated, but there is no disease developing by the time we harvested these seeds. So let's look at first and sugar and RSA. So the only difference again here, fungicide versus no fungicide, right? So 14.8 versus, you know, 15.3 to six. And then income, the recoverable sucrose per acre, no fungicide, you know, there's a significant disease developed in 2020. So 4,400 compared to, you know, 6,100 to 5,300 RSA per acre. This is again in 2020. And look at the numbers in 2021, you know, just upwards of 9,100 RSA. Again, there was not significant disease development. So we did not see any impact. Then none of the, you know, the fertilizers, they don't have any impact whether it's 2020 or 2021. There is no statistical difference in terms of recoverable sucrose or percent sugar. So based on this two-year study, you know, it's safe to assume that when you go with 1034.0 or power line, I think you'll be in better shape in terms of strata fertilizer. But the biggest difference will be if you have a severe field, then you can see some impact, you know, from on Rhizoctonia management. And one thing we also noticed in 1034.0, actually, I think especially in 2021, every batch looked different because I think you keep an eye on it and make your own jar test to make sure that it's mixing well. I don't know it's related to the supply chain issues, but what has changed, just be careful about, you know, 1034 batches that you're getting. And the other trial that we did in 2021 was integrated management of Rhizoctonia. So here we looked at two different varieties, 20.8 and 4.8, right? So strong and weak for Rhizoctonia. And then at planting, there's nothing on the seed, only 60 were on the seed. Quadrosinfero with 60 were on the seed are only quadrosinfero. And for the post emergence, we looked at two different timings. One is at four leaf stage and one is at the eight leaf stage. Everything was applied as a seven inch band and this is only with quadros. And the other treatment is no post, right? So I told you 2021 was dry and we did not see much disease pressure. And, you know, the resistant variety had a slightly lower stance compared to the susceptible variety over time, but, you know, statistically it's not any higher. And again, same in terms of the at planting treatments, the seed with only 60 were had slightly higher stance compared to nothing on the seed or only infero or seed and infero, but again, statistically, there is no difference here. Again, you know, it's pretty dry, you know, from May through July, so no disease development at this time. In terms of the four and eight leaf applications, now 34 days after planting, this is when the four leaf quadros was applied as a band. If there is any difference, you know, we could have seen this after this. Again, the eight leaf application, really no difference between no post versus four or eight leaf post in 2021. But when it comes to harvest, you know, the only difference we saw for a 3.8 and then the 4.8 variety was equal to sucrose per acre, right? So for a strong variety, since it has the good resistance, you know, as the beets get older, there's not much difference whether you did a post or not, but for the 4.8 variety, you know, 7062 RSA versus 7500, whether it's a four or eight leaf application. So the common message for post emergence application, if you have a higher risk field, and you know, if your variety is on the weaker side for rhizectonia, you better go with the four leaf application. Whereas if you have a moderate field and you know, you have a moderate tolerance for rhizectonia, you can go a little bit later like six to eight leaf application for post, you know. But you know, the bottom line is, you need to get this fungicide, slightly before rhizectonia could get on those beets now when the conditions are favorable. Anytime you do the fungicide application after rhizectonia infection, you can get some benefit, but it won't be as good as getting it prior to infection. And this is some data from 2020 again, using a, you know, strong and weak varieties. We saw for the resistant varieties about five tons in a yield pump with a four or eight leaf application compared to the weak variety, which had about 10 tons per acre. But I know I have never seen this much yield increase in our area because it's completely different. You know, we don't have this much tonnage here. And other trial that we did in 2021 was, you know, comparing all the post-immagine treatments, we used a weak variety here, the 4.8 rating. And then on June 23rd, we put the rhizectonia in our column over the crowns and we worked the soil a little bit, you know, into the crowns. And then we applied the fungicides on June 24th, right? So looking at my untreated control from the June 23rd, I lost about 52% of the plants to rhizectonia on a one to 10 rating scale, I got 4.3. And then for ricobal sucrose, about 4,400 pounds with the 14 tons per acre. So some of the best treatments I have here is, you know, Xcalium, it's the same, that's Zeltella seed treatment, but you can apply as a post-emergence application. So the big difference for Xcalium, if you're doing a seven inch band, you only need 0.64 fluid ounce, but if you're doing a broadcast, you need to apply two fluid ounce per acre. You know, it did pretty well in 2021, about 9,700 RSA, very similar to Quadris, you know, the 14.5 broadcast, or Quadris even 10 fluid ounce, you know, you tend to see the same pattern, whether it's 10 or 14.5, if it's applied as a band, you know, it does very well. And then Asteroid again, it did pretty good. So these are all Azoxystrobin containing products and Xcalium here. And then TopGuard, it's a combination of Azoxystrobin and then Triazole, that's a pro triapole. Again, it did very well in 2021. And Elatus, right, going forward, this is what Sinjanda wants to use compared to Quadris, that because it's a combination of Azoxystrobin and STHI, you know, it's a slightly lower, but you know, statistically, very similar to the top performing treatments. And some of the other fungicides that we tested in this particular trial are Praxner, Proline and Propoles, you know, generally, you know, Praxner and Proline did well in 2021, but not Propoles. But when I looked at the data from 2019, 2020 and 2021, you know, one of these fungicides was doing better compared to the other. So I would put this in the second tier category compared to Azoxystrobin compounds. So if you have a choice, go with the top treatments, but otherwise, if you have a moderate or a low risk for Rhizoconin, you could go with one of these fungicides. Again, this is really color-coded chart. So what I'm showing here is the, you know, the SDHA compounds for the seed treatments for QOIs and then the DMIs. And then these are based on the mode of action. So if you don't want to stick with the same mode of action as the seed treatment in for post, you know, this morning, at least 27% of you said you're using all three of these to manage Rhizoconia. So it's a good practice for you to go with one for a seed treatment and a different one for info and then come back with a similar one to the seed treatment. Just rotate the chemistry is just like what you do for, you know, start hospital each part. It's a very good approach for managing Rhizoconia. So just a quick recap, you know, the varieties, the resistant varieties, they do perform well, but you need to have some moderate to higher disease pressure. Otherwise, you know, just a moderate or susceptible varieties are also okay. And the seed treatment, they provide excellent protection, but it only lasts for four to five weeks. You know, in some years, it may be beyond five weeks, but that's just because there is not enough disease pressure. And in furofagi sites, when it's dry, you can hurt some stems a little bit and also under cooler conditions. But overall, by the time of harvest, you know, you just make up those standlots and then you come up on the, you know, with the decent heel. And the post treatment applications, as you know, we talked about 48 leaf stage window, you know, depending on, you know, if it's higher risk, just go a little bit earlier than later, but the good news is, you know, you have these two weeks of window to do this post-terminal application now with all the seed treatments. And looking at the best strategies, especially for the susceptible varieties, you know, normally a seed treatment and then the correct timing of a post application should work well. But if you're seeing more and more of the lower root rod and in a severe fields for rhizoctonia, I think doing all three, yeah, should be very helpful. And, you know, it's very easy for us to forget if you have, you know, a couple of dry years, but like I said, echinomyces can be, you know, severe challenge too, especially if you have a higher moisture. Again, it does not kill the seedlings before they emerge. It only happens after emergence. You get this pinching, if you have a high wind event, you know, you're going to lose the seedling. But again, later in the season, you get this root rod, sometimes you lose the tip of the roots and then, you know, it's, you don't see the ladder-like symptoms here, but you see, you know, bigger patches on the roots for echinomyces. So you're using five to 10 tons of lime, which is very good for echinomyces on top of seed treatment, that's Tachycarin. I know some of you are concerned about higher pH soils, you know, especially 8.5 or over using lime, but so far, you know, all the research sites we looked at had about, you know, 8.1 to 8.2 pH, but adding even 10 to 15 tons of lime did not increase the pH any further than 8.2 or 8.3. And then we never saw any detrimental impacts on the rotation crops. And the other one to keep an eye on will be Fiserium. I know not many fields, because once, you know, you had Fiserium, you're doing a really good practices, again, using Torrent varieties. Sometimes it can be very tricky, you know, but the classic thing is, you know, half-lethna crosses, and then when you cut these roots open, you see the vascular discoration. But if you have potatoes in the rotation, you can see very similar symptoms, but you don't see any of the blackening, you know, other internal tissues that could very well be because of where to selium in those fields. But, you know, it's very rare to see any yield loss to where to selium. With that, I would like to thank, again, the recent education board for funding this work and the co-ops and, you know, the seed and chemical companies for providing inputs and the UMN-NWROC facilities. Again, all the crew, especially with 2020, 2021, you know, with the COVID regulations, it's really tricky, you know, they're doing their best everything, you know, to accomplish all the tasks. And I'm very grateful for their work, especially Austin and Jeff taking care of everything in the lab and field.