Missouri Hopes to End Dicamba Ban Late This Week

While Arkansas farmers are in the very early stages of a 120-day moratorium on using dicamba, Missouri farmers may have a much shorter time to wait for their delay to end. Missouri Ag Director Chris Chinn told Agri-Pulse that the department’s intentions are for the ban to be more of a short pause in her state. The goal is to get approved products back in the hands of farmers by the end of this week. Chinn says the decision will be based in part on what companies like BASF and Monsanto do to make changes to restrictions or to the label of their products. Chinn says, “They’re looking at the special local needs label and that’s the state label. Once my Director for the Bureau of Pesticides Control signs off on that, it will go into effect immediately.” It then heads to the Environmental Protection Agency, which has 90 days to approve it or ask for changes. Both BASF and Monsanto issued statements saying they’re working with Missouri and hope to have the issue resolved as soon as possible. The Missouri Ag Department has received over 130 damage complaints involving more than 200,000 acres of damaged soybeans.