As we head into September, soybeans in Manitoba are fading from green to yellow, which means crops are entering maturity.

Manitoba Pulse and Soybean Growers production specialist Kristen Podolsky says this is a good time to do a final scout of the crop.

"What I like to do is grab a metre stick or some type of measurement tool, and walk throughout the fields, stopping at five to 10 locations," she says, "this is a good time to take plant population, if you didn't do that earlier in the season, and then also I think the most important part is a late season disease check."

In particular, Podolsky says growers should be looking for sclerotinia white mould, as it started to appear in fields a few weeks ago. When it comes to white mould, it's important to know what percentage of plants are affected.

"If we start to reach 10 per cent of plants affected, then we can start to expect some yield loss, anywhere from three to five bushels," she says, "but 10 per cent incidence is a lot of plants. It usually looks worse than it is, so actually taking account of, say, 100 plants in a row and understanding how many of those plants are affected by white mould, will give you your percentage and then it can kind of tell you whether or not you can expect yield loss."

Podolsky also says growers should be on the look out for phomopsis and brown stem rot.