The picture for dicamba in soybeans grew foggy early in 2024 when a court forced U.S. EPA to vacate labels for the three over-the-top dicamba products for dicamba-tolerant soybeans: XtendiMax, Engenia and Tavium. While the future for these three products beyond 2025 remains uncertain, the fog has lifted over what you can do with dicamba in 2025.

“Dicamba uses for corn were not affected by the 2024 court ruling,” explains Aaron Hager, University of Illinois Extension weed control specialist. “Dicamba products for corn should be available, and you can use them just as you have in the past. Be sure to follow label directions to limit spray drift potential.”

Soybeans and dicamba in ’25 is a different story, Hager acknowledges. “You can’t use Tavium, Engenia or XtendiMax because registrations were pulled for those products,” he says. “So, there will be no over-the-top application of dicamba on soybeans. It would also be illegal to apply [these three herbicides] in burndown situations — they have no registration right now.”

There are dicamba products that can be used in burndown applications before planting, he notes. Be very careful applying them ahead of sensitive soybeans without dicamba tolerance. In fact, Hager stresses that you must follow planting restrictions on product labels.

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“For example, even if you apply Clarity as a burndown ahead of dicamba-tolerant soybeans, you must wait 30 days, or whatever number is specified on the label, before planting soybeans. Otherwise, you violate the label,” he says.

Plant-back restrictions for soybeans may vary from 14 to 28 or more days, depending upon the label. Read the label thoroughly and follow it carefully, Hager advises.

Soybeans, dicamba and the future

“All we can say right now is that Tavium, Engenia and XtendiMax do not have federal registration at this time,” says Tommy Butts, Purdue Extension weed scientist.

What the future holds for these three over-the-top dicamba herbicides for dicamba-tolerant soybeans is uncertain, he adds. After labels were vacated, all three registrants applied for new labels with EPA late last spring — Bayer with XtendiMax, BASF with Engenia, and Syngenta with Tavium, a premix of dicamba and S-metolachlor.

All three proposed different strategies when applying for new labels, Butts notes. For example, XtendiMax would only be labeled for preemergence applications if approved. It also appears there would be a hard federal cutoff date of June 12 for any applications.

So, where is the process now? “Originally, we were told it would take 17 months for EPA to review, make decisions and possibly reregister these pesticides,” Butts says. “That would put it late into 2025 and would knock out 2025 for spraying with any of these products.

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“Now, however, it may take an additional 10 to 11 months. It appears that because it is reregistration, EPA will develop Endangered Species Act guidelines for these products under the agency’s new Herbicide Strategy as well. So, as of now, it seems as if farmers may not have these tools in ’25 or ’26.”

While anything can happen, both Hager and Butts suggest it is best to look for other herbicide strategies to control tough weeds for at least the next couple of seasons. Watch for updates as they occur.