Brief Summary of Minutes of Annual Meeting

The meeting was convened at 9:00 am by committee chair Gary Munkvold (IA) and was followed by self-introductions and presentations. 1 Pythium and Fusarium spp. associated with corn and soybean seedling disease and response to seed treatment fungicides Pierce Paul, THE Ohio State University 2 Pathology of fungicide seed treatments on corn Carlos Rodriguez, graduate student, Iowa State University 3 Developing maize germplasm with resistance to aflatoxin contamination Robert Brown, USDA-ARS Southern Research Center 4 Corn foliar fungicide regional results Carl Bradley, Univ. of IL 5 Quilt fungicide  Controlling corn diseases and enhancing plant performance Eric Tedford, Syngenta Crop Protection 6 Occurrence and proposed cause of hollow husk in corn in 2007 Fred Below, University of IL 7 Stalk rot impacts of foliar fungicides Ron Hines, Growmark DISCUSSION 1. Approximately 35 participants attended the sessions including representatives from universities, USDA, and industry. A list of participants is attached. 2. Committee status  Development status lasts 2 years and requires submission of a proposal by September 2008 to maintain official committee status. Discussion followed about the advantages and disadvantages of maintaining official CSREES committee status. Three options were discussed: a. CSREES committee  Maintaining official committee status would require a proposal and annual submission of committee documentation. There would be no benefit to the participants representing private industry so their participation may decrease and only a few current meeting attendees from Land Grant Universities would be provided funding to attend the meetings. Representatives from Land Grant Universities may increase. b. ASTA subcommittee  there is currently no disease committee and the closest match is for the group to develop a subcommittee under the Phytosanitary Committee. Designation as a subcommittee would likely require ASTA membership status. c. Independent status - Similar to the Southern Soybean Disease Workers (SSDW) and the Mid-South Association of Wheat Scientists. ASTA would likely still allow the group to meet in conjunction with their annual meeting in Chicago.

The group decided not to continue its pursuit of official CSREES status and to instead maintain itself as an independent committee using the activities of SSDW as a model. Tamra Jackson agreed to gather information on the history of SSDW. The group agreed to continue to meet in association with ASTA. The development of basic governance documents was recommended by current chair Gary Munkvold. Election of a new Vice Chair  Carl Bradley (IL) nominated Paul Esker (WI) and the group voted unanimously to elect Paul the next Vice Chair of group for 2008. Acting vice chair, Tamra Jackson (NE), will assume the role of chair in 2008. Gary Munkvold (IA) informed the group that we were solicited for speakers for the upcoming Interregional Corn Research Conference (February 26-27) in Baltimore, MD and Pierce Paul (OH), Paul Esker (WI), and Carl Bradley (IL) expressed interest in representing the group. Gary will provide a proposed speaker list for the meeting. Paul Esker (WI) and Carl Bradley (IL) submitted a joint IPM proposal focused on standardizing fungicide assessment methods on GLS in inoculated trials including a. Fungicide sensitivity, EC50 for fungicides b. Understanding on-farm trials c. Development of disease assessment guides Tamra Jackson (NE) proposed the idea to the group for the addition of a corn disease, especially southern rust, to the IPM PIPE for the following year. Tamra and Carl updated the group on the progress of the groups white paper on the impacts of increased corn production on disease, which they expect to be completed in 2008. Corn Extension agronomists attending the meeting this year requested to be included on the e-mail list. There was an extended discussion about the research and Extension needs related to the surge in foliar fungicide use on corn. The two main issues are: a. Need for standardization of fungicide evaluations, including disease ratings, fungicide rates, plant stage, hybrid resistance Arv Grybauskas (MD) agreed to propose standardization components in consultation w/ esker et al. (see item 5) b. Data analysis Paul Esker, Pierce Paul, and Carl Bradley agreed to work toward devising recommendations for the most meaningful approach to analysis of data from multiple-environment trials. This issue is closely related to the trial standardization issue, since the value of combined data analysis is affected by fungicide trial design. An idea to organize a corn fungicide symposium was discussed. Possibilities to add this to the agenda of the Interregional Corn Research Conference in Feb 2008, to add a session to the APS Annual meeting in Minneapolis in July-Aug 2008, or to organize a stand-alone meeting, were discussed. The group felt that the ICRC was too soon. The APS Special session schedule planning is already well under way, and it may be difficult to add a session there. There were no volunteers to organize a stand-alone meeting, and the group felt that it would be difficult to attract the appropriate audience due to all the competing conferences. This was not resolved, and the discussion will continue by e-mail. The groups next meeting will be Wednesday, December 10, 2008, in the same room at the Hyatt Regency in Chicago, during the ASTA meeting. Meeting adjourned at 3:30.