Dicamba Label Changes for 2018
On Oct. 12, 2017, the US EPA announced Registration Amendments for the Group 4 dicamba herbicides Xtendimax with VaporGrip Technology and Engenia. This action was taken in response to the numerous crop damage incidents reported to EPA during the 2017 growing season. The registration amendments include additional restrictions that are designed to minimize off-site movement of the herbicide.
The new requirements will allow growers to have access to dicamba herbicides to spray on dicamba-tolerant soybeans in 2018. The new terms and conditions in the revised labels do not supersede any conditions that were in the original labels, including the automatic expiration dates of Nov. 9, 2018 and Dec. 20, 2018 for Xtendimax and Engenia, respectively; i.e., the additional terms and conditions have been appended to the original registrations.
Monsanto and BASF will be responsible for relabeling all existing dicamba product inventories with the new labels, and only products with this new revised labeling or subsequently approved labeling can be distributed and sold. Also, claims about each dicamba product made on each company’s website may not substantially differ from the claims approved through the registration process.
Click Xtendimax with VaporGrip Technology and Engenia for the approved revised labels for these two herbicides.
On Oct. 19, 2017, Dr. Larry Steckel, Extension Weed Scientist at the WTREC of the Univ. of Tennessee, posted “Revised Engenia, Xtendimax, and FeXapan Herbicide Labels” on the Utcrops News Blog site. In this article, Dr. Steckel provides a list of the new/revised label requirements that are different from the previous labels for these dicamba herbicides.
The success of these new requirements in preventing off-target movement of the dicamba products that are applied to dicamba-tolerant crops will play a large part in whether or not this technology will continue to be available to producers since their registrations will expire in late 2018. EPA will monitor the success of these changes to determine if they are sufficient to justify the continued use of dicamba on dicamba-tolerant crops beyond the 2018 season. Therefore, producers must exercise due diligence in adhering to all requirements for their use if they want this technology to be available for the foreseeable future. Agriculture cannot afford to lose any of the available herbicide options that are now available to combat herbicide-resistant weeds. And the loss of this herbicide technology will be a severe blow to that effort.