Missouri farmers battling with illegal herbicide use

Aug 09, 2016

Many growers experiencing crop damage

By Diego Flammini
Assistant Editor, North American Content
Farms.com

Soybean farmers in parts of Missouri, Tennessee and Arkansas are experiencing crop damage as a result of what’s believed to be illegal use of dicamba.

The older herbicide has been recently used to help manage glyphosate-resistant weeds.

According to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, a Missouri Department of Agriculture representative said there’s been more than 100 complaints of pesticide drift in four Missouri Bootheel counties.

“The symptoms match what we would expect coming out of dicamba,” Kevin Bradley, an associate professor with the University of Missouri’s division of plant sciences, told the Post-Dispatch.

Soybean spraying
Getty

Many farmers have planted Roundup Ready 2 Xtend soybeans, but the dicamba-based herbicide made for the Xtend beans hasn’t been approved by the Environmental Protection Agency. This situation has led some farmers to use other dicamba herbicides for weed management, which can cause harm to neighboring fields through drifting.

“It basically boils down to the fact that you have a very sensitive crop in soybeans planted in close proximity to crops that are a GMO that is able to withstand dicamba,” Bradley told the Post-Dispatch. “And some people made dicamba applications, allegedly, and hurt (other) people’s crops.”

Terry Weaver, a farmer near Holcomb, Missouri, said he’s worried some victims may seek legal action to make up for losses.

Kade McBroom, who operates Malden Specialty Soy, said dicamba travels easily and makes pinpointing the source difficult.

State Rep. Don Rone said he’s going to pre-file legislation in December which would increase the penalties for those who misuse or illegally spray herbicides or pesticides.

Video: New colours and more durability for Case IH RB6 round balers

Farmers will see a new look and more efficiency and durability from Case IH's RB6 Series variable chamber round balers for model year 2026. In this report from the Farm Progress Show in Decatur, Illinois, Case livestock product specialist Brian Williams notes that the first thing farmers will notice is a new colour scheme. "For the tailgate, the frame, and also the pickup, we've changed to our Case IH red colour. One of the really nice things about changing that colour scheme is that you're able to see that crop flowing into the baler much better from the tractor." There's also changes to the pickup with the addition of a second roller. "On the 566 model, you can get it with the double windrower roller," says Williams. "For our customers that are baling corn stalks or large windrows, it helps to push that windrow down to let that feed into the chamber, so that they're able to bale a little bit faster, because everyone's looking for better efficiency." There are also modifications to the rollers in the bale chamber — the stripper roll and the fixed roll have been combined into a one-piece roller. "There's no welds on those rollers, so the dependability is going to be far greater than our previous model," adds Williams.