John Riedinger planted 100% Xtend soybeans. He sprayed Engenia. And he plans to do it all again next season. Riedinger says to realize the benefits of new technology it is a matter of application timing.

Despite the drift issues with the latest dicamba formulations on the market, the Andrew County first-generation farmer found success by using Engenia as burndown.

"I wanted to spray up front and not deal with any possible drift issues during the season," Riedinger says. "It really worked well for us. Our fields were clean."

Application timing of BASF's Engenia, Monsanto's XtendiMax and DuPont's FeXapan, herbicides based on a chemical known as dicamba, could be part of the decrease in dicamba drift damage numbers reported to the Missouri Department of Agriculture this season. There were almost 100 fewer complaints this year than in 2017, according to Chris Chinn, director of the Missouri Department of Agriculture. The state had 130 dicamba drift complaints in 2016, 315 in 2017 and 216 in 2018. 

The Missouri Department of Agriculture issued a Special Local Needs label that put in place mandatory certified applicator training and cutoff dates for this year. Farmers could not use dicamba-based products after June 10 in much of southeastern Missouri and July 15 across the rest of the state. In addition, the product could not be applied before 7:30 a.m. or after 5:30 p.m.

"The 24c label put in extra provisions, safeguards for farmers across the state," Chinn says.  

Still, there are other possible reasons for decreased dicamba complaints across the state, such as reinforced training and reluctant growers.

Application know-how
The federal registrations for applying the restricted use pesticides all require dicamba or auxin-specific training prior to application. In order for an applicator or a farmer to spray dicamba products, he or she had to complete training through the University of Missouri Extension.

Chinn says this training made the biggest impact in the field.

Roughly 2,500 applicators were trained on the label and how to use it. The state also saw 500 new commercial pesticide applicator licenses issued this year.

"It was truly a team effort with applicators, academia and government, all having a seat at the table, and working to ensure this new technology could be used safely," Chinn says.

Still, there are those that believe farmers just stopped reporting drift.

Farmers stay quiet
University of Missouri Extension weed scientist Kevin Bradley is no stranger to the dicamba debate. Since damage reports surfaced in 2016, he has been at the forefront of determining how to deal with drift.

Now he finds some soybean growers are just giving up. They are not willing to report, tired of the debate and deciding not to turn anybody in.

He’s been approached at meetings across the state from growers who tell their drift tale. One farmer had 120 acres of soybeans damaged. "But he is not reporting it," Bradley says. He told Bradley he did not "want to get anybody in trouble. If I turn in they will know it is me."

He fears more farmers are following suit. Bradley says fewer reports are fielded from soybean growers while there is an increase from groups like residential homeowners, and fruit and vegetable growers. "They are not shy about reporting their damage," he says. And this brings concern for the ag industry.

"I don’t dispute dicamba can give control over resistant Palmer and waterhemp, it is a tool," Bradley says. "But it is incredibly short-sighted to think of only getting my control, my weed, my field, and not think about what is happening to everything around us."

The Missouri Department of Agriculture reports 526 acres of peaches, 75 acres of watermelons, 10 greenhouses with vegetables, 508 acres of residential trees, 15 acres of fruit trees (excluding peaches), 32 personal gardens, two commercial gardens, two acres of grapes, two acres of blackberries, two acres of strawberries, 24 acres of alfalfa, two acres of elderberries, personal shrubs and flowers are being investigated for dicamba drift damage.

Bradley says farmers need to look at their role in this destruction, noting that agriculture is hurting other species because of one tool in the weed management toolbox.

Last word
The final determination of whether these three products remain in the marketplace comes from the EPA. 

The EPA is monitoring the success of this year’s label changes to determine whether to allow the continued over-the-top use of dicamba beyond the 2018 growing season. When the EPA registered these products, it set the registrations to automatically expire in two years to allow it to change the registration, if necessary.

According to Chinn, the EPA has not reached out for input from states other than to collect complaint numbers.

TALKING TO FARMERS: University of Missouri Extension weed scientist Kevin Bradley shares his concerns about dicamba drift from this year with farmers at a field day.

Recently, the Missouri Department of Agriculture signed a letter to encourage the EPA to provide states the flexibility to apply cutoff dates that work for them. "A nationwide cutoff date chosen for farmers in Arkansas won’t make sense for farmers in Michigan," Chinn says, "so that flexibility is something we see as key moving forward."

She adds that farmers and her own office are "patiently waiting to see what the future of the technology is."

The decision will impact soybean growers like Riedinger. He plans to use the product again in 2019. "It worked well for us," he says. "We had little weed pressure. We used Engenia and had no problems."