During the 2017 growing season, farmers reported dicamba injury on about 50,000 acres of soybeans in Nebraska — that's a far cry from the nearly 1 million acres in Arkansas, but it’s still substantial.

However, as the 2017 season winds down and growers begin planning for next year, regulators are planning and weighing the options when it comes to dicamba applications. Recently, EPA announced it had reached an agreement with Monsanto, BASF and DuPont on measures to further minimize potential drift damage to neighboring sensitive crops from the application of dicamba formulations used to control weeds in dicamba-resistant cotton and soybeans.

Although some of the specifics aren't yet known, manufacturers have agreed to label changes that add requirements for over-the-top use of dicamba products next year, including:

 • Proper training. One new requirement is classifying products (XtendiMax, FeXapan and Engenia) as "restricted use," permitting only certified applicators with dicamba-specific training, and those under their supervision, to apply them.

 • Recordkeeping. A requirement for farmers will be maintaining specific records regarding the use of these products to improve compliance with label restrictions.

 • Watch wind speeds. Limiting applications to when maximum wind speeds are below 10 miles per hour to reduce potential spray drift.

 • Tighter application window. Another restriction will be reducing the times during the day when applications can occur.

 • Tank cleanout. Manufacturers will be required to include tank cleanout language in dicamba labels to prevent cross-contamination.

When is it OK to apply?

Amit Jhala, Nebraska Extension weed management specialist, notes one of the biggest challenges is knowing when it's safe to apply dicamba.

With the current and potential additional restrictions (including wind speeds of 10 mph or less, and applying at certain times of the day), it can be difficult to nail down the proper window of application, Jhala notes.

Commercial applicators and cooperatives have a large amount of ground to cover, and it's difficult to apply on all acres on time. Some cooperatives in the Midwest have even announced they won't apply dicamba next year.

"The label is written in a way that is hard to follow all of the suggestions," Jhala says. "Nebraska is usually windy. If you take out all the days where wind speed is more than 10 mph, how many days does that leave?"

Correction: An earlier version of this article stated incorrectly that regulators in Nebraska were considering additional restrictions specifically relating to the state of Nebraska.