Faced with 97 complaints of misuse of the weed killer dicamba, the Arkansas state plant board is set to vote today on whether to ban the sale and use of the herbicide on cotton and soybeans for the rest of the growing season, reported DTN. If the emergency regulation is passed by the board, it would still need the approval of Gov. Asa Hutchinson, said a Farm Journal site.
“Other states are also reporting the characteristic leaf cupping and puckering that implicates dicamba injury in sensitive crops,” said DTN. “Mississippi, Tennessee, and Missouri are also reporting some symptoms connected with dicamba drift. Post-emergence spraying is now underway in the Midwest. Symptoms generally take from one to three weeks to appear after the herbicide reaches a sensitive plant.”
Dicamba has been used for years, but the herbicide has become an issue with the release of GE strains of cotton and soybeans that tolerate doses of the weed killer. Only a few low-volatility versions of dicamba are approved for use during the growing season. Some growers use other formulations that are more prone to drifting onto other crops. “In 2015 and 2016, complaints rolled in when seed companies sold [cotton and soybean seed with the dicamba-resistant] Xtend trait, but there were no labeled dicamba products to use,” said DTN.