Dicamba

In the first case involving dicamba, a jury sided with the plaintiff and found Bayer and BASF responsible for $15 million in actual damages and $250 million in punitive damages.

In 2018 IDA issued 233 warning letters and 14 notices of fines. In 2019, there have been 62 warning letters and 98 notices of fines. Fines are pretty evenly split between commercial and private applicators.

The trial is at the U.S. District Court Eastern District of Missouri Southeastern Division and centers on whether damage to a peach farm is from dicamba drift or natural causes including a spreading soil fungus.

IFCA is hopeful they can effectively find ways to bring down the number of complaints to enable use of this herbicide technology in the future.

While some states, such as Missouri, have strict cutoff dates, others rely on label guidelines which stop applications at R2. In many areas, soybeans are at or near R2.

Jean Payne discusses more on dicamba as well as the curveballs that COVID-19 threw ag retailers in The Scoop podcast.