INA, Ill. (August 26, 2025) — Farmers, growers and agriculture professionals from across Southern Illinois headed to Rend Lake College’s Grow More™ Experience site on August 14 and 15 for Syngenta’s annual Key Grower Education Days.
During the event, attendees went on a guided tour of research plots, engaged with hands-on demonstrations and learned from leading agriculture experts about emerging challenges and solutions in crop production.
Featured Presenters
Dr. Bryan Young, Purdue University — Professor of Botany & Plant Pathology Dr. Young's presentation revolved around waterhemp and the declining efficiency of current herbicides. He shared ways to manage waterhemp emergence through full labeled rates of pre-emergence residual herbicide applications prior to crop emergence, and post-application herbicide programs that effectively kill waterhemp.
Dr. Carl Bradley, University of Kentucky — Dr. Bradley spoke about his experience researching Red Crown Rot, noting the considerable increase in occurrences within soybeans. He shared how soybean disease symptomatology may not be Sudden Death Syndrome; it could potentially be Red Crown Rot. Attendees learned the differences between Sudden Death Syndrome and Red Crown Rot within soybeans and how to correctly identify the plant disease.
Blake Patton and Addison Page, Rend Lake College — Patton, RLC Director of the Agronomy Innovation Center, and Addison Page, RLC Sustainable Agriculture Specialist, provided insight on sprayer nozzle selection and spraying techniques for various pesticide applications. They led a demonstration utilizing RLC’s John Deere 410R ExactApply sprayer that provided a great visual on how different nozzle types provide a wide range of droplet size and leaf area coverage.
Ron Krausz, Southern Illinois University - Carbondale — Retired Weed Science Professor Krausz educated those in attendance on waterhemp's history of herbicide resistance and its adaptability throughout the past 3 decades. The key takeaways for the presentation were waterhemp’s rate of adaptability to gain other resistance has increased, and the reliance of post-application herbicide programs becoming less effective due to the weed’s prolific characteristics that provides a greater chance of another waterhemp to emerge.
Dr. Jason Bond, Southern Illinois University - Carbondale — Dr. Bond provided some great insight into how Red Crown Rot may be managed through breeding techniques utilized previously to reduce the severity of Sudden Death Syndrome. He shared how seed treatments are needed to reduce the harsh effects on soybean yields that Red Crown Rot imposes, and how seed treatments will still be needed to control other seedling diseases as well as other later forming diseases for optimum plant health and yields.
RLC was proud to host Syngenta's Key Grower Education Days, and to strengthen the region's agriculture community with research, resources and hands-on learning opportunities.
Want to learn how RLC can advance your career in agriculture? Visit rlc.edu/agriculture to see how a certificate or degree may benefit you!
