As of today, August 6, the Illinois Department of Agriculture reports that they have received a total of 457 formal pesticide related complaints since January 2019.  Of those 457 complaints, 277 are dicamba related.  IDA processed 65 dicamba-related complaints just yesterday.  To put this in perspective, prior to the advent of dicamba application on soybean, the number of agriculture pesticide related complaints rarely exceeded 100-120 complaints per year.  In 2017, dicamba complaints reached 246 and in 2018, they hit 330.  

The University of Illinois published a bulletin on on dicamba observations last Friday, and you can read that bulletin here.  Last week the University of Tennessee also issued a bulletin on dicamba issues in their state, including concerns about growing weed resistance, available to read here.  

 

Calls that IFCA receives 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 of retailer's efforts to reduce off target movement.  We will continue to keep our members updated on the situation.