We expect all data will be collected by February 2012, and we will submit a final report to USB shortly after. We expect the data will show differences in soybean yield suppression caused by individual diseases between regions of the US. These data combined with data on yields suppressed due to diseases for 1996 through 2010 will demonstrate changes in severity of diseases over time. The results will be submitted for farm press publication and will be published on the World Wide Web. In addition, summaries will be submitted for publication in scientific journals.
Mean yield loss will be calculated across locations as the loss in bushels per state calculated from overall production and the percentage loss estimated by disease. The difference between the observed losses within a state will be estimated from the mean loss and standardized to a percentage loss. This percentage loss will be plotted over time to look for trends geographically as well as years when conditions were most favorable for specific diseases to occur. Further work (longer term) proposes to use multivariate methods to attempt to model percentage loss as a function of geography and environment.