Dicamba ruling leaves more questions than answers

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Dicamba ruling leaves more questions than answers

The director of the Minnesota Soybean Growers says this week’s court ruling on dicamba leaves more questions than answers.

Joe Smentek tells Brownfield the Association is trying to figure out what the decision means for farmers.

“The petitioners were challenging EPA’s designation on a number of different grounds. The court went ahead and picked one of those and decided that they needed to cancel the registrations for the dicamba products immediately for over-the-top application on soy and cotton.”

But he says the court failed to provide necessary clarity.

“Normally these decisions have a 14-day stay, so that the EPA can decide whether or not to ask for a rehearing. Also, FIFRA has some language in it that would allow for the use of products that were already in the hands consumers. Those questions are not answered.”

Smentek is also concerned the federal appeals court ruling could be a death knell for ag chemicals in general.

“I think some of the issues that they looked at were misguided. I think some of the reasoning was a little bit flawed, and really takes a lot of the deference that the (experts in the) agency had to make some of these determinations, it takes it right out of their hands.”

Minnesota Soybean is advising growers to stay on top of the latest guidance, with Smentek calling it a fluid situation.