Editor's Note: Each year, DTN publishes our choices for the Top 10 ag news stories of the year as selected by DTN analysts, editors and reporters. This year, we're counting them down from Dec. 18 to Dec. 31. On Jan. 1, 2025, we will look at some of the runners-up for the year. Today, we continue the countdown with No. 9: A federal court vacated the registrations of three "over-the-top" (OTT) dicamba products previously approved for soybeans and cotton.
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JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (DTN) -- Whether it's waterhemp, kochia or Palmer amaranth, herbicide-resistant weeds seem to be overcoming their chemical controls faster than new herbicides can come to market. Weed scientists urge farmers to protect the efficacy of the products in their "herbicide toolbox" or risk losing them. Yet, in 2024, it was a federal court that removed one of these tools for the foreseeable future.
In early February, the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona in Tucson vacated the 2020 registrations of XtendiMax, Engenia and Tavium, three "over-the-top" (OTT) dicamba products previously approved by the EPA. This marked the second time that a court action led to label cancellation for these products. (Read more from DTN here: https://www.dtnpf.com/…)
EPA did not appeal the ruling from the district court. Instead, the agency issued an existing stocks order for the 2024 growing season. This allowed the herbicides already distributed from the product registrants to be applied following cutoff dates on the products' previously approved labels. This meant that after June 30 in soybeans and July 30 in cotton, the use of these three OTT dicamba formulations ceased in any fashion. (Read more about that decision: https://www.dtnpf.com/…)
Yet, even before those cutoff dates were reached, the registration process for OTT dicamba products in 2025 was reinitiated. Bayer announced that it submitted its application for XtendiMax, which it referred to KHNP0090, on March 11. On May 3, EPA published a notice of receipt of that application in the Federal Register and announced the start of a 30-day public comment period. The agency published similar notices and announced public comment periods for BASF's Engenia and Syngenta's Tavium on June 4 and July 23, respectively.
While all three OTT dicamba product labels propose the same use patterns in dicamba-tolerant cotton, there are differences in soybean use patterns. As proposed, the labels for Engenia and Tavium would allow applications to dicamba-tolerant soybeans before, during and immediately after planting as well as over the top until the crop reaches the V2 growth stage -- when the second trifoliate leaf is fully unfolded -- or until June 12, whichever comes first. However, the proposed label for XtendiMax did not include any OTT application in soybeans, though it included the same June 12 cutoff date.
Despite these efforts by the registrants, regulatory realities make it highly unlikely that OTT dicamba will find its way back into farmers' herbicide toolboxes in 2025. The Pesticide Registration Improvement Act (PRIA 5), reauthorized by Congress in December 2022, specifies a statutory review time of 17 months from the date that an action gets in-processed. Such a timeline essentially eliminates these products from receiving labels for use in the new year, leaving growers to seek out other means of controlling troublesome weeds in their fields.
Read more from DTN:
-- "Regulatory Realities Likely to Keep Over-the-Top Dicamba Off the Market in 2025," https://www.dtnpf.com/…
-- "Proposed Syngenta Dicamba Label Maintains Early Over-the-Top Use in Soybeans," https://www.dtnpf.com/…
-- "Proposed BASF Dicamba Label Maintains Early OTT Use in Soybean," https://dtnpf.com/…
-- Proposed Bayer Dicamba Label Removes Over-the-Top Use in Soybeans https://www.dtnpf.com/…
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See No. 10 story, "2024 Was Year of Labor Unrest at US and Canada Rail and Shipping Ports," at https://www.dtnpf.com/…
Jason Jenkins can be reached at jason.jenkins@dtn.com
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