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9th Circuit Court decision on dicamba “challenging for farmers”

A soybean researcher says the 9th Circuit Court’s sudden dicamba ban couldn’t have come at a worse time. University of Wisconsin Soybean Specialist Shawn Conley says, “I didn’t think 2019 could be beaten for the worst year ever, and I think we just did it.”

Shawn Conley

Conley estimates that nearly 60% of the soybean acres in the Midwest have moved to dicamba-tolerant varieties.  He says a lot of growers are concerned, and rightly so because of the timing of the 9th Circuit Court’s decision. “Right now is when that first application, post (emergence) application would be going on so this is a challenge for those growers who have invested in that technology and using that as one of their tools to manage the glyphosate-resistant waterhemp.”

The court Wednesday specifically named dicamba products from Bayer, BASF, and Corteva but did not mention the Tavium line from Syngenta.  Conley says if Tavium is allowed, there will be supply problems. “Most of these companies have programs in place where if you use our technology, use our products, then you can have price rebates so I’m guessing there’s a run on that product.”

Conley suspects farmers have a lot of dicamba on hand and rushed to get that first post-emergence spray down Thursday, but he says with the court ruling, that would be an illegal off-label application that might impact the sale of the beans later.  He tells Brownfield the legal possibilities there would make the Arkansas dicamba issues from two years ago look small.

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