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Chinn wants quick end to Missouri dicamba ban
Missouri Agriculture Director Chris Chinn tells Brownfield she wants state use labels for dicamba in place this week so that the temporary ban on the herbicide ban can be lifted.
“That’s really what we want to do, that’s what the companies want to do,” Director Chinn told Brownfield Ag News Monday. “[The chemical companies] have been very good at communicating with us and working with us so that we can hurry up and get this ban lifted so that we can get this tool back in the hands of farmers.”
The ban was imposed following more than 130 complaints fielded by the Missouri Department of Agriculture about damage from possible dicamba drift, according to Director Chinn.
“We had commercial applicators who were calling with concerns that they had done everything by the label and they couldn’t guarantee that they hadn’t caused damage to neighboring fields,” said Chinn. “They were very concerned, as were farmers and ranchers who said they had done everything according to the label as well and they were really concerned that they might have caused damage to their neighbors.”
Chinn says her department is collaborating with Monsanto, BASF and DuPont to develop the state use labels. Each of those companies market products containing dicamba herbicide.
“We are going to be working very closely with them and University of Missouri to make sure the label is something that farmers can live with, that they can work with and still have a very effective tool in their hand to fight weed pressure,” said Chinn.
Dicamba is applied to soybeans and cotton genetically engineered to tolerate the herbicide that’s been effective in killing weeds that have developed resistance to other herbicides.
The temporary ban on dicamba was imposed last Friday by the Missouri Department of Agriculture.
AUDIO: Chris Chinn (7 min. MP3)
Tags: Agronomy, Chris Chinn, dicamba, Dicamba ban, Missouri, Soybeans
Don’t lift the band. It has damaged my crops in southeast Missouri.