2018 Spring Farm

2018 Logan County Farm Outlook Magazine LINCOLN DAILY NEWS March 22, 2018 Page 19 Dicamba has been around for decades, but problems arose over the past couple of years as farmers began to use it on soybean and cotton fields where they planted new seeds engineered to be resistant to the herbicide. Because it can easily evaporate after being applied, the chemical sometimes settles onto neighboring fields. Some farmers illegally sprayed dicamba before federal regulators approved versions that were designed to be less volatile 1 . The issue illustrates the struggle to control agricultural pests as they gradually mutate to render the chemicals used against them less effective. And while some farmers fear damage from their neighbors’ dicamba, others are worried that their fields will be defenseless against weeds without it 1 . The drifting herbicide has been particularly damaging for soybeans. A group of farmers in Arkansas filed a class-action lawsuit in federal court against BASF and DuPont, which make dicamba 1 . The chemical has hurt other crops too, including vegetables, peanuts, tomatoes, cucurbits (pumpkins) and ornamentals. As the damage piles up, dicamba has also made it more difficult for one company, Ozark Mountain Poultry, to find non-genetically modified soybeans to use as feed for chickens because more farmers are relying on seeds engineered by Monsanto to resist the herbicide. Non-modified soybeans are needed to market chicken as non-GMO 1 . Dicamba’s makers insist the problem is not with the herbicide but how some farmers apply it. They say the states should focus on other restrictions, such as limiting spraying to daytime hours 1 . Dicamba is similar to the herbicide 2,4-D. Both act like natural plant hormones known as auxins. These hormones help to control plant growth. When plants are treated with dicamba, they grow in abnormal and uncontrollable ways, and often, the plants die. Dicamba is used on many broadleaf weeds and woody plants 2 . The action of hormone-mimicking dicamba is to cause treated broadleaf plants to put on unsustainable growth, thereby running out of nutrients and dying of starvation. Engenia, XtendiMax and FeXapan are now Restricted Use Pesticides, which means that only certified applicators (private applicators and commercial applicators) can purchase Continue 8