The Ohio Department of Agriculture (ODA) is reminding pesticide applicators of the June 30 cutoff date for over-the-top dicamba products to soybeans. No additional applications can be made to this year’s crop after this date, regardless of growth stage.
Dicamba is an herbicide used to help limit unwanted weeds around crops. In 2018, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) designated new dicamba products as restricted use, meaning they can only be used by certified applicators.
In December 2021, the EPA released its 2021 incident report, which indicated that across the United States “more than 1 million acres of non-dicamba-tolerant soybean crops were allegedly damaged by off-target movement of dicamba.” In Ohio, there were 34 reported incidents involving dicamba.
If you have questions or concerns about dicamba please contact the Division of Plant Health’s Pesticide & Fertilizer Regulation Program at (614) 728-6987 or Pesticides@agri.ohio.gov.