The Minnesota Department of Agriculture has announced new restrictions on the use of the herbicide dicamba in the state for the 2018 growing season. The new restrictions are in addition to those announced by EPA in October. Changes include a June 20 application cutoff to reduce potential volatility. Bob Worth, who chaired the Minnesota Soybean Growers Association Drift Task Force, says they can work with the change, but would have rather had graduated dates from south to north.
Another change is the cutoff temperature. He says dicamba can’t be sprayed if the temperature exceeds 85 degrees, which was in line with their recommendation and with the research that shows it helps decrease volatilization injury.
Worth says they’re satisfied with the rules because the department is at least extending the label for another year, which preserves the technology. He says this was their main goal.
In Minnesota, formulations of dicamba are “Restricted Use Pesticides” for retail sale to and for use only by Certified Applicators. Worth says this means additional application training, which farmers can expect this winter.
The affected formulations are XtendiMax by Monsanto, Engenia by BASF, and FeXapan by DuPont.
