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Dicamba misuse complaints in Illinois on pace with last year

The Illinois Department of Agriculture reports the number of dicamba related pesticide misuse complaints in the state so far are on pace with last year.

Doug Owens, the department’s Bureau Chief of Environmental Programs tells Brownfield they have received 59 complaints as of Friday, which is ahead of this time last year, but says it is important to factor in the delayed growing season and later application cut-off date in 2019.

“Everything was kind of pushed back about two weeks. At the end of that July 26th week in 2019 we had 59 total dicamba related misuse complaints. That week matches pretty well with what we saw this previous week in 2020.”

He says historically they get the highest number of misuse complaints in late July and early August.

“We will probably know in three or four weeks where we compare with previous years and especially last year.”

There was a record 720 dicamba related complaints in Illinois in 2019. Owens says they hope additions made to the 2020 state label help mitigate dicamba drift this season.

Interview with Doug Owens

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