Dicamba Rules Different Between States

The Environmental Protection Agency released its federal labels for three products that contain dicamba back on October 31st. A DTN report says different state-level restrictions are developing in rural states. For example, Arkansas is considering imposing a May 20th cutoff date, as well as requiring large protective buffers for sensitive crops. Indiana and Minnesota both submitted 24(c) special local needs labels to the EPA with proposed cutoff dates of June 20th. South Dakota has submitted a similar 24(c) proposal with a June 30th cutoff date. North Dakota is considering a similar proposal. Other states are said to be considering additional requirements. Some of the proposals include additional record-keeping rules, as well as state-specific application requirements. DTN says EPA approval of the different requirements is not a sure thing. EPA recently told state regulators they don’t want them to submit 24(c) labels to create restrictions in addition to those federal requirements that already exist. The agency’s reasoning is the practice of doing that may not be legally sound. Only four states have said they won’t add any additional requirements to the federal label.