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Soybean farmers dealing with patchwork of dicamba regulations

Many Midwestern soybean farmers who plan to use dicamba in 2019 are looking at a patchwork of state regulations.

In addition to the federal label, places like Indiana, Minnesota, and South Dakota are going even further to regulate the technology.

Minnesota Soybean Growers Association president Michael Petefish says dicamba can’t be used in his state past June 20th.

“We think a federal label works, and it can be tough (when) states piecemeal together different standards if you’ve got people farming on both sides of a border or coops that travel between states.  It complicates things.”

Indiana is also instituting a June 20^th cutoff for dicamba, and South Dakota is going with June 30^th.

Petefish tells Brownfield a temperature cutoff used in Minnesota this past year won’t be in effect in 2019.

“I think it’s a step in the right direction.  Certainly we had days last year where wind-wise (it) was perfectly good for spraying, but maybe we got pushed out due to temperature.  And I think it was maybe a double-edged sword.”

In November, EPA extended the registration for two years for the over-the-top use of dicamba to control weeds in soybean and cotton fields.