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Minnesota Ag Department sticks with June 20th dicamba cutoff

The Minnesota Department of Agriculture is sticking with its June 20th cutoff date for dicamba applications despite spring planting delays.

In a news release, Commissioner Dave Frederickson says although it was a challenging spring, the state is now on track with soybean planting more than 90 percent complete.  He also cites dicamba being more effective on small broadleaf weeds, and that late applications only mean bigger weeds and better chances for escapes.

MDA pesticide division manager Josh Stamper says the department spent months analyzing what state restrictions would help mitigate off-target movement to avoid a repeat of last year’s 250 drift complaints.

“Another component of why we want to see these (growth regulators) used when the soybean crop is still small in stature is that we know when we double spray-boom height from 18 to 36 inches the potential for drift downwind increases by 350 percent.”

The department identified June 20th as a significant date related to dicamba, finding that 75 percent of the drift complaints were associated with applications occurring after the summer solstice.

Stamper tells Brownfield there’s a lot riding on 2018.

“Our concern is that if we’re going to steward this technology for future years we really need to have a successful year.”

In addition to the date cutoff of June 20th, MDA also prohibits the use of dicamba herbicide when temperatures exceed 85 degrees.

 

 

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