The Environmental Protection Agency’s timeline for reviewing a new dicamba label submitted by Bayer could mean growers won’t be able to use the herbicide next year.
This season, growers have been using dicamba that had been sold before Feb. 6, the day a federal judge in Arizona vacated registrations for the herbicide after finding EPA had failed to take comments on previous registrations and subsequent amendments that changed cutoff dates for spraying in several states.
EPA said Friday it received an application from Bayer to register new uses for Xtendimax, its herbicide that has been sprayed “over the top” on dicamba-tolerant soybeans and cotton. “This proposed new use has been coded as an R170, additional food use, which carries a [Pesticide Registration Improvement Act 5] statutory review time of 17 months from the date that the action gets in-processed,” the agency said in its notice.
Center for Food Safety attorney George Kimbrell, one of the lawyers in the Arizona litigation, said use of the PRIA timeframe “throws into question” whether dicamba will be authorized for use in 2025.
If EPA takes 17 months to finish its work, that would mean no decision would be made until September 2025.
Growers have been able to use dicamba this season thanks to an existing stocks order issued by EPA after the court decision. But Kimbrell said neither EPA nor the registrants filed to appeal the decision before the deadline to do so, leaving U.S. District Judge David Bury’s decision in place.
EPA released Bayer’s proposed label for a 30-day comment period that would end June 3, but Kimbrell said that’s not nearly long enough, and Center for Food Safety will be seeking an extension.
Probably the most recognizable changes made by Bayer in the proposed label are a June 12 cutoff date for application in soybeans and an end to post-emergence, or “over the top,” spraying. The current federal label is June 30, but several states have imposed earlier cutoff dates to reduce drift and the potential for damage to off-site crops and other vegetation. In Iowa, Illinois and Indiana, and south of I-94 in Minnesota, the cutoff is June 12. South Dakota has a June 20 deadline.
The proposed label, which Bayer emphasized is for 2025, would allow two applications of Xtendimax in soybeans “before, during, or immediately after planting, and through emergence up to the earlier of emergence or June 12.”
Soybean growers are worried about the situation, said Alan Meadows, an American Soybean Association director and soybean farmer from Tennessee.
“While we are concerned with some aspects of the proposal, including the lack of post-emergent use for soybeans and some Endangered Species Act restrictions, the fact that a new registration has been proposed is a positive step,” Meadows said. “There are already dicamba-tolerant soybean seeds being grown for the 2025 growing season. Without the certainty of continued post-emergent dicamba use for 2025, there will be nowhere near enough seed or herbicide to meet market needs. We will most likely be thrown into an inputs supply chain crisis like we saw after COVID
Bayer didn’t go into a great amount of detail about its submission, saying it “includes some new proposed label changes, which we believe are necessary to achieve a timely EPA approval for the 2025 season. For example, we are proposing up to emergence use with soybeans. For cotton, we are proposing post-emergent use up to July 30,” the same cutoff deadline that exists currently.
“We’ve made these proposed changes as we believe it gives us the best chance at receiving a label in time for the 2025 season,” a spokesperson said.
Cut through the clutter! We deliver the news you need to stay informed about farm, food and rural issues. Sign up for a FREE month of Agri-Pulse here.
Kimbrell, however, and the Center for Biological Diversity, the other party in the lawsuit, said the modifications aren't meaningful.
“These changes would not fix the key issues that have resulted in past calamities,” CBD said in a news release. “Cotton growers would still be allowed to spray into the heat of summer (until July 30), when volatility is worst, promising continued massive drift injury wherever cotton is grown.
“The proposed reductions in the number and amount of annual applications will not have much impact, since growers have historically used far less dicamba than permitted, causing enormous damage nonetheless,” CBD said. “While the proposed label for soybeans would bar application after June 12 or crop emergence (whichever comes first), that language is likely to have little practical impact with a GE crop expressly designed for over-the-top use and the potential for spraying into June.”
The current label does not specify the number of applications permitted, as opposed to the proposed label, which specifies up to two applications.
In a statement, Bayer said it continues to “stand fully behind the technology and believe growers should continue to have access to vital crop protection tools.” The company urged “growers and others to participate in this public comment period to help explain the importance of the technology.”
“We hope the EPA will continue to move swiftly so growers have access to the technology in time for the 2025 season,” the company said. “We are doing everything we can to get the best possible label for growers for 2025 and beyond.”
“Meanwhile, it will be very important that growers and applicators have another successful season with over-the-top dicamba use in 2024,” Bayer said. “As always, label compliance is absolutely essential and required by law.”
Kimbrell, however, said dicamba, which has caused considerable off-site damage to crops and other vegetation since it began to be used in 2016, is “a broken product.”
For more news, go to www.Agri-Pulse.com.
