State's dicamba beefs hit 56 mark

Complaints from 12 Delta counties

The number of complaints filed with the state Plant Board about possible misuse of the dicamba herbicide increased to at least 56 on Wednesday.

The Plant Board, a division of the state Department of Agriculture, unveiled a Web page Tuesday that provides updates on a problem vexing farmers for the second consecutive summer.

The complaints have been filed from 12 Delta counties where soybeans and cotton are the primary crops. The board confirmed 23 cases of dicamba damage last summer that affected thousands of acres of cotton, soybeans and fruits and vegetables.

In Missouri, where more than 100 complaints were filed last year -- many from counties near the Arkansas border -- officials also have received more than 50 complaints this growing season, Sarah Alsager, a spokesman for the Missouri Department of Agriculture, said Wednesday.

Wes Ward, Arkansas' agriculture secretary, and Terry Walker, the Plant Board's director, on Wednesday visited with several farmers in eastern Arkansas whose crops have been affected by possible misapplication of BASF's Engenia, the only dicamba herbicide that is legal in Arkansas for in-crop use, or by the spraying of illegal, less expensive and more volatile dicamba formulations.

Adriane Ward, the Arkansas Agriculture Department's spokesman, said Ward and Walker visited farmers near Crawfordsville in Crittenden County and a state-funded agriculture experiment station in Keiser in Mississippi County, where about 100 acres of soybean test fields had to be plowed up this week because of damage.

The Engenia herbicide was approved for use on dicamba-tolerant cotton and soybeans, but with numerous restrictions, requiring farmers' close attention to wind speed and direction, humidity levels and buffer zones before spraying the herbicide, which poses special risk to field crops, fruits, vegetables and ornamentals that are not dicamba tolerant.

Tom Barber, a weed scientist with the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture, wrote earlier this week on his blog that some 20,000 acres in Phillips County and 7,000 acres in Mississippi County have been damaged to some extent.

"Of the fields I've walked personally, 80 percent to 90 percent of the situations were caused by physical drift," Barber wrote. "The wind was blowing too high, they [applicators] didn't have the correct nozzle setup. ... [Spray] booms were too high or winds were blowing toward a sensitive crop."

Nighttime spraying also might be a source of the problems, Barber said. A temperature inversion -- involving high temperatures, high humidity and no wind -- can cause the herbicide to lift from target plants and move off-target to susceptible crops.

Gov. Asa Hutchinson on Wednesday declined to say what the state's response should be.

"I would not comment on anything specific that needs to be done," he said when asked during a news conference whether he believed the dicamba-tolerant seed technology should be banned. "That's the purpose of the Plant Board to do their work, but I do think it's important to be on-site and look at damage, talk to the farmers and to investigate this further."

Hutchinson this winter endorsed the Plant Board's vote to put in place regulations that are stricter than the federal label for the herbicide and to keep a dicamba product by Monsanto out of the Arkansas market for at least this growing season while UA scientists study its volatility levels.

The Plant Board also voted to require herbicide applicators to complete an online certification course.

The board's pesticide committee also will meet at 10 a.m. Friday in Little Rock to discuss problems and possible solutions. The committee will continue those meetings every Friday through July 21, with all starting at 10 a.m.

Visits with farmers, such as those Wednesday by Ward and others, will help officials develop a response, Hutchinson said. "More importantly, it's the Plant Board that has the lead in this," he said. "They're the experts in this. I look for their guidance."

Information for this article was contributed by Brian Fanney of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.

Business on 06/15/2017

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