LANSING - With harvest upon them, Michigan soybean growers are keeping watch for soybean rust, a disease that could seriously curtail the state's second largest crop.

The disease has yet to appear in the state, said Mike Bryan, director of the nursery program at the Department of Agriculture.

"Depending how serious it is, the rust can reduce the number of flowers that are able to pollinate and when that happens it reduces the total yield of the crop," Bryan said.

Jerry Heck, who farms 500 acres of soybeans about 2 miles southwest of Monroe, said he not only stays up on the issue through reports but also employs someone to check his fields for disease, including soybean rust.

"To keep informed, I watch different agriculture reports throughout the country because I know the rust will come in with the wind," Heck said. "I also have a crop scout who regularly walks my field to look for disease and insects, and rust is one of those things he looks for."

Soybean rust has been found in the Gulf Coast region and as far north as North Carolina, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Two species of soybean rust exists - an Eastern and Western Hemisphere variation - both of which attack the leaves of the plant. The Western Hemisphere form is less devastating than the eastern variety.

Bryan said there was concern after Sept. 11, 2001 that terrorists could bring the disease into the country. It appeared in the United States in 2004 apparently being carried by a hurricane not because of subversive action.

"In 2002, it was put on a national agriculture bioterrorism list, which got attention from all agriculture state departments throughout the country and has since been removed," Bryan said.

With 2 million acres in throughout the state, soybeans were the second most planted crop behind corn, which had 2.2 million acres planted in 2004, according to the National Agricultural Statistics Service. The crop also accounted for more than $420 million in cash receipts, second in the state behind corn.

If the disease does make it in Michigan, the best treatment is through fungicides. The process is expensive, Heck said.

"Treating rust is really a kind of double-edged sword," he said. "If you don't spray, it can kill the whole crop and if you do, it can start costing as much that you start losing money, so it's hard to determine what to do if it ever appeared."

Bryan said the cost of controlling the disease can even lead to a where it is cheaper to allow it to kill the plant.

"If it was found, they would have to apply fungicides, which would be an additional expense, and if you have to apply two treatments of fungicide, it wouldn't be cost effective."

President of the statewide Michigan Soybean Association,  Herb Smith, who has also soy farm near Temperance said he has been working to get information on the disease since it was discovered in the country to inform his members.

"We try to impress upon our members that being a member is the best way to stay informed about issues like rust and the only way to get anything done legislatively because we lobby," he said. "If we aren't lobbying we know someone else will be and it allows us to promote research that can stop things like rust and find future uses for the plant like soy diesel."

"Heck said he is not immediately concerned about rust because he knows he will see it elsewhere before it arrives in Michigan.

I am not going to start worrying about it until it gets to Indiana because I am upwind from there," Heck said. "When it gets there I have something to worry about."

Smith said is confident that it will one day arrive in the state and foresees difficulty in combating it.

"It's hard to prepare for something you have never seen and I am sure one day we will see it," Smith said. "If it hits they'll call in the sprayers and start spraying."