Cotton growers will be without over-the-top Dicamba this year, and Extension specialists say that will take some getting used to.
“You know, the loss of Dicamba would be devastating, I think. We do have cotton producers in the state of Oklahoma that plant Dicamba cotton, and so they need to think about alternatives or what they’re going to do moving forward if they do stick with that Dicamba cotton. A couple of things that I would like to spread the word on to keep in mind is making sure we’re putting down residuals pre-[planting]. We want to make sure we’re starting clean in that growing season so we can stay clean throughout the growing season or stay as clean as possible. And then we do have some over-the-top post options like Liberty and Roundup, some of those type of chemicals that you can spray, and if they still work on your farm,” said Jenny Dudak.
A Federal Court ruling last year took Dicamba out of rotation, but it did allow growers to use existing stocks. Back in November, a small group of Senators asked the EPA to deny any future registrations of Dicamba, arguing tighter restrictions have already been tried and were not enough to mitigate the damage.