Mary Hightower, “Dicamba Drift: Arkansas Researchers Find All Formulations Volatile; 876 Injury Reports,” AgFax, August 10, 2017.

SUMMARY:

The Plant Board reports 876 complaints as of 8/10. An estimated 35% of the state’s 3.5 million acres and 300,000 of the 400,000 acres of cotton are planted in dicamba resistant acreage that would be sprayed with the new herbicide formulations.  Weed scientists with the state point out that although lab testing found that the new formulations (Engenia, Xtendimax, and FeXapanTM) were less volatile than older dicamba herbicides (i.e. Banvel and Clarity), researchers have found that under realistic, field growing conditions “differences in volatility between older dicamba products such as Clarity and newer ones including Engenia and Xtendimax are not as evident… Soybeans are so sensitive, very, very low levels of volatility can cause injury.” FULL TEXT

Bryce Gray, “Reports of crop damage resurfacing since Missouri dicamba ban lifted,” St Louis Post-Dispatch, August 4, 2017.

SUMMARY:

Reports that the dicamba ban in Missouri was lifted in Mid-July and farmers had resumed spraying.  Damage reports are re-occurring.  One farmer quoted in the story compares his Missouri acres where “every acre” is showing damage to his healthy soybean fields in neighboring Arkansas that has a similar dicamba ban in place.   Some places showing damage are at least a mile away from any possible source of dicamba.  Missouri’s ban was in place for less than a week after stricter conditions rules for spraying dicamba were issued targeting wind speed and the time of application.  Monsanto is based in Missouri and some questioned the role their political power played in the lifting of the ban.  FULL TEXT

Mario Parker, “Pesticide ‘Drifting’ Wreaks Havoc Across U.S. Crops,” Bloomberg, August 1, 2017.

SUMMARY:

Bloomberg reports on the dicamba damage numbers.  Article includes key information from Monsanto about number of acres planted in dicamba-resistant soybeans (20 million) and cotton (5 million) in 2017.  This represents about 25% percent of the national soybean crop and about half of the cotton crop, very significant numbers.  FULL TEXT

Kevin Bradley, July 25, 2017, “Ag Industry, Do we have a problem yet?,” Integrated Pest and Crop Management, University of Missouri.

SUMMARY:

Article summarizes the total number of dicamba-related drift complaints as 1,411 as of July 19, 2017.  Arkansas leads with 686 complaints, while Missouri has over 200. Estimates of acres damaged are up to 2.5 million.  The author asks: “does 1,411 official dicamba-related injury investigations and/or approximately 2.5 million acres of dicamba-injured soybean constitute a problem for U.S. agriculture? …[M]y answer is an emphatic yes.”   FULL TEXT