b'DICAMBA RULING SHAKES UP CROP PROTECTION LANDSCAPEWhat is being done to reverse the ruling on three products, and what options growers have for 2021 if the ruling continues to stand.Treena HeinITS WELL KNOWNacross the industry that the U.S. NinthRodenticide Act (FIFRA), including granting or cancelling crop Circuit Court of Appeals released a decision to vacate threeprotection product registrations. dicamba registrations: Bayers XtendiMax, BASFs EngeniaBayers petition to the Ninth Circuit for a re-hearing was and Cortevas FeXapan. This affects about 60 million acres ofdenied in Aug. 17. dicamba-tolerant soybean and cotton. Alex Zenteno, Bayers Dicamba product manager, states that we strongly disagree with the ruling and believe the re-hearing A Disappointing Outcome should have been granted for several reasons. Were still looking BASF North America calls the decision unprecedented, withat our options to set the record straight, but whats really impor-the potential to be devastating to tens of thousands of farmerstant is that this ruling applies to registration for 2020. across the U.S.For the 2021 growing season, Bayer has submitted new data Media Relations Manager Odessa Hines says BASF continuesand analysis on the product (XtendiMax) and a new volatility-to pursue EPA re-registration of Engenia as well as new registra- reducing tank additive, which the Environmental Protection tions of other dicamba-based products. Agency (EPA) is currently examining.Corteva Agriscience has filed a petition in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals seeking an en banc rehearing.Looking at OptionsCorteva is taking this action, explains Media RelationsWhen asked about options and strategies soybean growers Manager Kacey Birchmier, to preserve our rights as a tech- should use in 2021 should no dicamba products be available, nology provider, the rights of growers to access needed cropNorsworthy point to the Enlist system as one option. He says it protection technologies as well as to preserve the role of theinvolves multiple modes of action and is effective for the control U.S. EPA to administer the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide &of Palmar amaranth and pigweed in the Midwest and Midsouth. Another option is LLGT27, but although Alite 27 can be used in LLGT27 soybean, its only registered in some states. Weve done research with metribuzin and S-metolachlor in combination with Alite 27 and have seen a high level of pigweed control for seven to eight weeks, he says. Glufosinate call also be tank mixed with glyphosate to broaden the spectrum in LLGT27 and Enlist soybean.Because of growing resistance, Norsworthy continues to believe the long-term solution to weed management challenges faced by U.S. soybean producers will not solely be found in a chemical jug. Herbicide companies are talking about stacks with four or five herbicide traits but most of these are old chemistries, he says, and there is not a lot in terms of new chemistry coming down the pipeline for soybeans in the, U.S. where traits are matched with new herbicide sites of action. Norsworthy believes weed control is going to be about using as many tools as possible. We are going to need more new chemistry but also bring-ing other tactics into the weed control program is paramount, he says. For example, can we capture and destroy weed seed during harvest using some of the new seed mill destruction devices?SW50/ SEEDWORLD.COMOCTOBER 2020'