As of July 27, 2018 the Illinois Department of Ag has received 275 formal misuse complaints attributed to suspected misuse and/or off-target movement of dicamba.  While the majority are complaints related to symptoms in soybeans, there are also a growing number of complaints where symptoms on trees will be investigated.  Last year, the dicamba complaints in Illinois topped out at 246 at the end of August.  IFCA stays in weekly contact with IDA on the issue. 

 

Our observation this year is that many farmers who have called IDA to file a complaint did so without talking first to the applicator (private or commercial) or to the chemical company.  Calls that IFCA received at our office indicate a growing sense of disconnect in the countryside in terms of communication and efforts to work things out.  Many of the growers who called our office stated they felt the applicators did a good job, but they are concerned about symptoms still occurring regardless.  They expressed to us that they felt IDA needed to be involved in the assessment of what caused the off target movement this year given all the training and concerted efforts to keep the product on target.  

 

Last week, IFCA sent an on-line survey to our RETAIL members to capture your experience with dicamba application this year.  We ask for your observations and recommendations with regard to the future, and hopefully more successful, on-target use of dicamba.  We've received great response to the survey, thank you. 

 

If you are a retail member and did not get our email with the link to the survey, please email Jean Payne at jeanp@ifca.com and we will send you the link.  We need your responses by August 2, and we will share the compiled results with our membership.