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Iowa farmer plans extra caution with new dicamba herbicide

Many Midwestern soybean growers will be using one of the new dicamba herbicide formulations this year in conjunction with dicamba-resistant soybeans.

Farmer Curt Mether of Logan, Iowa is one of them. Mether says he’s well aware of the concerns associated with the dicamba herbicide, which is why he plans to be extra cautious when applying it.

“Well, we’re going to get all new nozzles and we’re going to follow the label 100 percent,” Mether says. “The trouble is, if you get behind the curve when you’re spraying, then you spray on those days when it’s a little too windy. So we’re just going to try to really start early, and if it’s too windy we’re just not going to spray.

“We’ve got some really good neighbors and we don’t want to ruin those relationships.”

Mether says the new herbicide will help him control glyphosate-resistant weeds such as marestail and lambsquarter. And he hopes it will help solve another problem as well.

“We always have trouble with trees in our fence rows and brushes, and it will give you a little more time to work on them, I think,” he says. “Because normally, if you spray them with 2,4-D when the beans are up a little bit, you can’t use that. So now, hopefully, we’ll be able to use that to work on the fence rows a little bit more this year.”

Monsanto projects over 15 million acres of dicamba-resistant Roundup Ready 2 Xtend soybeans will be planted this spring.

AUDIO: Curt Mether