Bibliography Tag: dicamba watch
Caitlin Dewey, “This miracle weed killer was supposed to save farms. Instead, it’s devastating them.” The Washington Post, 8/29/2017.
SUMMARY:
Washington Post story reports on ongoing damage from dicamba. Important points in the article include the potential for drift- “According to a 2004 assessment, dicamba is 75 to 400 times more dangerous to off-target plants than the common weed killer glyphosate, even at very low doses. It is particularly toxic to soybeans — the very crop it was designed to protect — that haven’t been modified for resistance.” Reports on latest numbers- 3.1 million acres in 16 states. ‘“It’s really hard to get a handle on how widespread the damage is,” said Bob Hartzler, a professor of agronomy at Iowa State University. “But I’ve come to the conclusion that [dicamba] is not manageable.”’ FULL TEXT
Steve Smith, “Save Our Crops Coalition Open Letter to Chairman of Monsanto,” August 9, 2016.
SUMMARY:
open letter Steve Smith, Chairman of the Save Our Crops Coalition sent to Hugh Grant, Chairman and CEO of the Monsanto Company about drift damage from dicamba spraying on dicamba-resistant crops. FULL TEXT
Robb Fraley for Monsanto, “Dicamba Drift: Monsanto Announces Action Plan,” Monsanto Blog in AgFax, August 8, 2017.
SUMMARY:
Monsanto releases a 3 part plan to address the surge in dicamba drift complaints. FULL TEXT
Kevin Bradley, August 14, 2017, “Update on Dicamba-related Injury Investigations and Estimates of Injured Soybean Acreage,” Integrated Pest and Crop Management Newsletter, University of Missouri.
SUMMARY:
Updates numbers of dicamba damage nationally- 2,242 complaints and estimated 3.1 million acres damaged. FULL TEXT
Mary Hightower, “Dicamba Drift: Arkansas Researchers Find All Formulations Volatile; 876 Injury Reports,” AgFax, August 10, 2017.
SUMMARY:
The Plant Board reports 876 complaints as of 8/10. An estimated 35% of the state’s 3.5 million acres and 300,000 of the 400,000 acres of cotton are planted in dicamba resistant acreage that would be sprayed with the new herbicide formulations. Weed scientists with the state point out that although lab testing found that the new formulations (Engenia, Xtendimax, and FeXapanTM) were less volatile than older dicamba herbicides (i.e. Banvel and Clarity), researchers have found that under realistic, field growing conditions “differences in volatility between older dicamba products such as Clarity and newer ones including Engenia and Xtendimax are not as evident… Soybeans are so sensitive, very, very low levels of volatility can cause injury.” FULL TEXT
Chuck Abbott, “Arkansas Task Force Aims for Long-Term Recommendations on Use of Dicamba,” The Fern, August 9, 2017.
SUMMARY:
Arkansas has appointed a 21-member task force to help identify solutions for the dicamba drift damage problem, with 900 complaints received this year so far. FULL TEXT
Bryce Gray, “Reports of crop damage resurfacing since Missouri dicamba ban lifted,” St Louis Post-Dispatch, August 4, 2017.
SUMMARY:
Reports that the dicamba ban in Missouri was lifted in Mid-July and farmers had resumed spraying. Damage reports are re-occurring. One farmer quoted in the story compares his Missouri acres where “every acre” is showing damage to his healthy soybean fields in neighboring Arkansas that has a similar dicamba ban in place. Some places showing damage are at least a mile away from any possible source of dicamba. Missouri’s ban was in place for less than a week after stricter conditions rules for spraying dicamba were issued targeting wind speed and the time of application. Monsanto is based in Missouri and some questioned the role their political power played in the lifting of the ban. FULL TEXT
Mario Parker, “Pesticide ‘Drifting’ Wreaks Havoc Across U.S. Crops,” Bloomberg, August 1, 2017.
SUMMARY:
Bloomberg reports on the dicamba damage numbers. Article includes key information from Monsanto about number of acres planted in dicamba-resistant soybeans (20 million) and cotton (5 million) in 2017. This represents about 25% percent of the national soybean crop and about half of the cotton crop, very significant numbers. FULL TEXT
Kevin Bradley, July 25, 2017, “Ag Industry, Do we have a problem yet?,” Integrated Pest and Crop Management, University of Missouri.
SUMMARY:
Article summarizes the total number of dicamba-related drift complaints as 1,411 as of July 19, 2017. Arkansas leads with 686 complaints, while Missouri has over 200. Estimates of acres damaged are up to 2.5 million. The author asks: “does 1,411 official dicamba-related injury investigations and/or approximately 2.5 million acres of dicamba-injured soybean constitute a problem for U.S. agriculture? …[M]y answer is an emphatic yes.” FULL TEXT
Tom Barber, “Dicamba Drift and Potential Effects on Soybean Yield,” AGWatch Network, July 7, 2016.
SUMMARY:
Tom Barber, an Extension Weed Scientist at the University of Arkansas, posts a chilling overview of what he has observed in soybean fields in several parts of the state. His piece “Dicamba Drift and Potential Effects on Soybean Yield” contains an ominous warning – “We have observed a 10% [soybean] yield loss from dicamba at rates as low as 1/1024X of the labeled rate” – a very low level of drift and/or movement following volatilization. Barber also warns that low rates of dicamba drift/movement onto soybeans, especially later in the crop’s growth cycle (i.e. R3-R5) can result in carryover of dicamba in the seed…triggering problems if the soybeans are used for seed in the next year and increasing dietary exposure levels. FULL TEXT
