News

State ag dept. leaders ask EPA for no dicamba date

Missouri’s Ag Department director and her counterparts in 19 other states have asked the EPA not to require a cut-off date on the label for dicamba when it makes its decision on registration for 2019. The state ag leaders who signed on are from leading soybean and cotton states. They also include Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, and Ohio. Five of the 20 states have cut-off dates, including Missouri. The directors say EPA should let individual states pick cut-off dates on dicamba because asking the EPA for exceptions to the label is burdensome for states.

Missouri Ag Department spokesperson Sami Jo Freeman says Missouri’s cut-off dates in 2018 have proven effective because there are 100 fewer dicamba damage complaints this year, compared to 2017. She says there were 315 formal complaints last year and 216 this year.