Missouri farmers battling with illegal herbicide use

Aug 09, 2016

Many growers experiencing crop damage

By Diego Flammini
Assistant Editor, North American Content
Farms.com

Soybean farmers in parts of Missouri, Tennessee and Arkansas are experiencing crop damage as a result of what’s believed to be illegal use of dicamba.

The older herbicide has been recently used to help manage glyphosate-resistant weeds.

According to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, a Missouri Department of Agriculture representative said there’s been more than 100 complaints of pesticide drift in four Missouri Bootheel counties.

“The symptoms match what we would expect coming out of dicamba,” Kevin Bradley, an associate professor with the University of Missouri’s division of plant sciences, told the Post-Dispatch.

Soybean spraying
Getty

Many farmers have planted Roundup Ready 2 Xtend soybeans, but the dicamba-based herbicide made for the Xtend beans hasn’t been approved by the Environmental Protection Agency. This situation has led some farmers to use other dicamba herbicides for weed management, which can cause harm to neighboring fields through drifting.

“It basically boils down to the fact that you have a very sensitive crop in soybeans planted in close proximity to crops that are a GMO that is able to withstand dicamba,” Bradley told the Post-Dispatch. “And some people made dicamba applications, allegedly, and hurt (other) people’s crops.”

Terry Weaver, a farmer near Holcomb, Missouri, said he’s worried some victims may seek legal action to make up for losses.

Kade McBroom, who operates Malden Specialty Soy, said dicamba travels easily and makes pinpointing the source difficult.

State Rep. Don Rone said he’s going to pre-file legislation in December which would increase the penalties for those who misuse or illegally spray herbicides or pesticides.

Video: Evolution of Beef Cattle Farming

The Clear Conversations podcast took to the road for a special episode recorded in Nashville during CattleCon, bringing listeners straight into the heart of the cattle industry. Host Tracy Sellers welcomed rancher Steve Wooten of Beatty Canyon Ranch in Colorado for a wide-ranging discussion that blended family history and sustainability, particularly as it relates to the future of beef production.

Sustainability emerged as a central theme of the conversation, a word that Wooten acknowledges can mean very different things depending on who you ask. For him, sustainability starts with the soil. Healthy soil produces healthy grass, which supports efficient cattle capable of producing year after year with minimal external inputs. It’s an approach that equally considers vegetation, animal efficiency, and long-term profitability.

That philosophy aligned naturally with Wooten’s involvement in the U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, where he served as a representative for the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association. The roundtable brings together the entire beef supply chain—from producers to retailers—along with universities, NGOs, and allied industries. Its goal is not regulation, Wooten emphasized, but collaboration, shared learning, and continuous improvement.