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Wisconsin is experiencing fewer dicamba problems

The University of Wisconsin’s soybean expert says his state has experienced less dicamba drift than others. Shawn Conley says, “I’m not going to say there hasn’t been any out there, but it hasn’t been to the extent of the I states.”

Conley tells Brownfield he believes the earlier start to the growing season helped prevent problems. “Wisconsin farmers got their soybeans to plant early, so we were able to get those applications on earlier than we normally would and really got into that window where the risk for our off-target movement was less.”

But Conley says he has at least one research plot at the Arlington Research Station that will need close observation for yield loss because of likely dicamba drift. “There was some dicamba off-target movement to one of my research plots, so just like every farmer in Iowa and many in Wisconsin, we’re going to experience the same issues with that.”

Wisconsin’s ag department confirms there was one dicamba drift complaint in 2017, five cases in 2018, and none in 2016 and 2019.  There are two pending dicamba drift investigations underway this year in Wisconsin as of July 13^th.

Conley says he is hopeful the research plot recovers from the minimal exposure and suspects the drift came from a Status or Clarity application to nearby corn.   He says the affected soybeans are a dicamba-tolerant variety, so the observations from that field will be useful.