Soybean stem health is an understudied area of soybean pathology. With the exception of white mold (Sclerotinia stem rot), symptoms of brown stem rot and stem canker are often overlooked or confused with stress related to climatic conditions or with seasonal changes in the growth and development of soybean. Brown stem rot occurs each year, but severity and yield loss is favored by conditions ideal for soybean growth. Stem canker has increased in incidence and severity throughout the north central U.S. and Ontario, Canada. The recent resurgence of stem canker in the north central region has not been explained. However, likely factors are associated with reduced tillage, shortened rotation systems and changes in soybean germplasm. Additional considerations are that the stem canker pathogen has undergone genetic changes or that related fungi have emerged and are capable of causing symptoms along with the original causal pathogen. If considered as a complex, brown stem rot, white mold and stem canker occur across a range of climatic conditions that essentially ensure a high probability that one of them will be yield-limiting in a given year. Thus, the ideal soybean variety would have resistance to each disease.