Researchers from Louisiana State University describe findings in agriculture and crop research.

"Understanding how defoliation affects soybean (Glycine max (L.) Merr] yield during the seed-filling period will aid in making management recommendations for control of stresses that reduce yield through defoliation. Because previous research has studied defoliation effects at only one or two specific stages of seed filling, our objective was to gain a greater understanding of the mechanisms for yield reduction with defoliation at weekly intervals across the seed-filling period," scientists in the United States report.

"Defoliations were conducted from the bottom of the canopy upward to mimic the progress of soybean rust. Two experiments, one in Kentucky (38 degrees N lat) and …