News

Researcher says increased dicamba acres results in fewer drift issues

A University of Tennessee extension agronomist says reported dicamba drift issues in Tennessee have declined this year.  “The biggest reason is we don’t have a lot of beans in harm’s way anymore because they’re all Xtend,” he says. 

Larry Steckel tells Brownfield more than 95 percent of soybean acres in Tennessee and about 85 percent of cotton acres are dicamba tolerant.

But, he says, they’re starting to see some weed control issues. “Not having some versatility out there – and using some other herbicides and integrating some of those with some non-herbicide practices, I’m afraid we’re building up a problem in the not-so-distant future,” he says. 

Steckel says they’re seeing some of the biggest challenges in controlling grasses.  “Our research would suggest a lot of that is due to when dicamba is tank-mixed with Roundup,” he says.  “A lot of antagonism is caused to the grass control with Roundup.  To the point where we’re down to 50% control on goosegrass and jungle rice.”

He says resistance concerns are one of the reasons he encourages producers to not tank-mix glyphosate and dicamba.