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Missouri legislative session light on agriculture issues

Missouri’s Senate Agriculture Chairman says the state legislative session’s primary agriculture issue was a measure that addressed off-label use of the herbicide dicamba.

“What this bill did was give the [Missouri] Department of Agriculture some teeth when they went out and investigated misuse of drift of herbicides,” said Republican Senator Brian Munzlinger, in an interview with Brownfield Ag News.

The law allows up to $10,000 in fines for each violation of knowingly misapplying herbicides, said Munzlinger.

Missouri Farm Bureau President Blake Hurst tells Brownfield there are instances of drift beyond a grower’s control.

“We did not want farmers vulnerable to the higher fines for those situations,” Hurst told Brownfield, “and I think the law, as it was passed, accomplished that.”

Thousands of acres of Missouri Bootheel soybeans and other crops were injured last year from off-label application of an early formulation of dicamba that’s more likely to drift than the formulation that has since been brought to the market.

AUDIO: Brian Munzlinger (8 min. MP3)

AUDIO: Blake Hurst (7 min. MP3)

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