As of today, June 27, the Illinois Department of Agriculture continues to field many calls on alledged dicamba misuse, and is up to 66 formal complaints to be investigated by the department.  Total pesticide misuse complaints in both ag and lawncare have now exceeded 160 (a "normal" year used to be around 110 total complaints).  The number of official dicamba complaints have doubled in the last few days.  At this point the majority of the complaints are stemming from central and east-central Illinois where symptoms in non-dicamba soybeans are evident as are symptoms in other plants, although the majority of complaints so far are attributed to soybeans. 

 

As our industry continues to work together to try to assess the causes, especially given the intense focus on label compliance and facility and sprayer hygiene, the IDA will play a critical role in this effort.  IFCA supports the state investigation process and also supports efforts by our members to help assess the situation.  IFCA welcomes any input from our members on dicamba use in 2018 and your experiences as a commercial applicator.