Dicamba
With complaints rising across the countryside, certain U.S. states are taking action to manage suspected dicamba damage. Restrictions and out and out bans limit farmer and applicator options this season.
Arkansas farmers are waking up Tuesday morning to the first hours of the 120-day dicamba ban that went into effect overnight. Missouri farmers are on hold, and some are hoping the state ban is short-lived.
As farmers prepare for the first year of over-the-top dicamba application, questions cloud the horizon.
A bill that would require increased penalties for off-label herbicide use passed in the Missouri House and moves on to the Senate. The bill could be passed as early as mid-March.
Two men at the center of a fatal fight allegedly over dicamba drift had an ongoing dispute over the issue, according to a local Extension agent familiar with the matter.
Arkansas farmer Mike Wallace, 55, was found shot to death the night of Oct. 28 outside of Leachville, Ark.. Mississippi County Sheriff Dale Cook says the shooting occurred after a dispute over Dicamba herbicide drift that Wallace had claimed damaged his crops. Mourners packed the Monette church for his funeral on Friday, and gathered the evening before to pay their respects to the Wallace family.
Northeast Arkansas, the Missouri Bootheel and northwest Tennessee are having problems with dicamba drift. In the Bootheel, four counties have been issued federal search warrants in relation to the illegal herbicide.
Farmers from 10 states are eligible to join a potential class action against Monsanto from dicamba drift damage. States include Alabama, Arkansas, Illinois, Kentucky, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, Tennessee and Texas.
Manufacturers are seeking 2021 registration, meanwhile off-target damage is reaching high levels. According to experts, Iowa is seeing the most extensive damage since the 1960s when the herbicide was first introduced.