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Universities denied volatility testing prior to launch

Weed scientists say volatility of the new dicamba formulations is ONE of the ways dicamba damage to neighboring crops has occurred this season, while the makers of the herbicides say it is NOT. Jason Norsworthy, with the University of Arkansas, tells Brownfield Ag News one of the companies did not allow university testing for volatility prior to EPA approval, “We were able to test Engenia (by BASF) and yes we did see that Engenia had lower volatility risk, or at least slightly lower volatility risk based on the testing we had. We were not allowed to test Xtendimax (by Monsanto).”

Monsanto stands by its decision not to have academics test volatility right before launch because of the more than one-thousand “real world” tests the company has done, starting in 2009, “To do those at the 11th hour, shortly before commercialization, just wasn’t feasible. To be responsive to academics, those concerns, we’ve enlisted them to do that testing now,” says Scott Partridge, Vice President of Global Strategy with Monsanto, who says the company itself does on-going testing of its products.

He says their tests show that volatility is reduced by 90% with Xtendimax with Vapor Grip Technology and they’re not seeing ANY off-target movement if the label instructions are followed.

 

 

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