EPA extends dicamba registration

Nov 01, 2018

States have the authority to make changes to local regulations

By Diego Flammini
Staff Writer
Farms.com

New Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulations on dicamba will help soybean and cotton growers control problematic weeds.

Yesterday, the EPA announced a series of measures designed to help growers protect their crops while also taking potential drift issues into consideration.

Included in the agency’s rulings is a two-year registration extension. Current dicamba registrations, which the EPA authorized in 2016, were set to expire this month.

The EPA’s new ruling extends the dicamba registration to Dec. 20, 2020.

Other EPA decisions include allowing dicamba applications “from 1 hour after sunrise to 2 hours before sunset” and prohibiting over-the-top applications on cotton 60 days after planting.

Soybean growers are pleased with the EPA’s pertaining to dicamba applications on their cash crop.

Farmers will have 45 days after planting to perform over-the-top dicamba applications to their fields, the EPA’s ruling says.

That extended window will give farmers ample opportunity to keep weeds like Palmer amaranth under control, said John Heisdorffer, president of the American Soybean Association.

“We need dicamba in our toolbox to keep moving forward with weed control,” he said to Farms.com. “We’ve got 45 days for over the top applications and we can put down dicamba pre-emergence without any restrictions. I think this will be a good working relationship between the EPA and soybean farmers.”

Individual states will have the authority to make changes to rules in local jurisdictions.

The EPA’s decision sets out the “minimum standards,” said Willard Jack, a soybean producer from Belzoni, Miss. and former member of a state task force on herbicide performance.

“Each state can make the (regulations) more restrictive if they want to,” he told Farms.com. “If they choose to do nothing, they would still have to follow the EPA’s rules.”

Growers are pleased that states will have the authority to make different rules based on several factors.

“I think the more local you can make it, the better,” said Daniel Berglund, a soybean producer from Wharton, Texas and president of the Texas Soybean Association. “We might have different issues here than we would somewhere else in the country.

“Having localized rules that take things like neighboring crops and climate into account will only help farmers.”

Video: Evolution of Beef Cattle Farming

The Clear Conversations podcast took to the road for a special episode recorded in Nashville during CattleCon, bringing listeners straight into the heart of the cattle industry. Host Tracy Sellers welcomed rancher Steve Wooten of Beatty Canyon Ranch in Colorado for a wide-ranging discussion that blended family history and sustainability, particularly as it relates to the future of beef production.

Sustainability emerged as a central theme of the conversation, a word that Wooten acknowledges can mean very different things depending on who you ask. For him, sustainability starts with the soil. Healthy soil produces healthy grass, which supports efficient cattle capable of producing year after year with minimal external inputs. It’s an approach that equally considers vegetation, animal efficiency, and long-term profitability.

That philosophy aligned naturally with Wooten’s involvement in the U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, where he served as a representative for the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association. The roundtable brings together the entire beef supply chain—from producers to retailers—along with universities, NGOs, and allied industries. Its goal is not regulation, Wooten emphasized, but collaboration, shared learning, and continuous improvement.