Meta-Analytic and Economic Evaluation of Fungicide Programs Applied for Managing Sclerotinia Stem Rot in Soybean Across the North Central United States

Farmers in the North Central United States are at risk of having soybean yield robbed due to infection by Sclerotinia sclerotiorum, the causal agent of Sclerotinia stem rot (SSR). While certain management strategies, such as wide row spacings, lower plant populations, and resistant varieties, can reduce SSR development, there is often a negative yield impact associated with these strategies. Conversely, chemical management strategies do not have an associated yield drag, and therefore, they have been the primary tool for suppressing SSR development. Independent chemical programs were evaluated across eight states from 2017 to 2024, resulting in 32 site-years ( n = 1,370 plot-level observations). A network meta-analysis was performed on these data to evaluate the ability of these commonly used spray programs for their impact on yield, ability to reduce SSR development, and economic benefits. Overall, the program that includes Endura, at a rate of 560 g ha −1 , at both the R1 and R3 growth stages, was the most effective in reducing disease incidence (%), disease index (%), and estimated sclerotial load (kg ha −1 ) while providing significant yield protection. However, the most profitable program for SSR management was Cobra, at a rate of 438 ml ha −1 , at the R1 growth stage due to the product's ability to balance the reduction of SSR while also being affordable for farmers to apply. The resulting models from this meta-analysis have been used to develop an interactive online application that farmers can use to compare the probabilities of different programs for expected net returns and profitability to improve on-farm decision-making. [Formula: see text] The author(s) have dedicated the work to the public domain under the Creative Commons CC0 “No Rights Reserved” license by waiving all of his or her rights to the work worldwide under copyright law, including all related and neighboring rights, to the extent allowed by law, 2026.