By Rep. Paul Anderson
The past two weeks have seen a flurry of communication between legislators, farmers and the Minnesota Department of Agriculture. The topic of most of it was the deadline for spraying a pesticide known as “Dicamba” on soybeans. Dicamba is a chemical that’s been around for a long time, but in the last couple of years, soybeans have been bred to resist its weed-killing ability and certain varieties are now resistant to it. It has become popular to plant this type of soybeans in areas where weed resistance to other chemicals such as Round-Up has become quite prevalent.
The issue comes because this Dicamba can, under certain conditions, drift or volatilize and move onto areas where it shouldn’t be and cause damage to crops that are not resistant to it. Several hundred complaints were lodged with the Dept. of Ag last year in Minnesota, as well as numerous similar complaints in other states. Because of that, access to the pesticide became more restricted this year, and growers who wanted to continue using it had to attend classes on its use and become certified.
In addition, the Department went beyond what most other states were doing and added a cut-off date, a date after which the spraying of Dicamba would not be allowed in Minnesota. Commissioner Dave Frederickson announced last year, that after consulting with university researchers and others, the cut-off date here would be June 20. In addition, there were other stipulations to spraying, such as high temperature and wind limits.
The date raised concerns at the time from those involved in soybean production. My local co-op told me that, traditionally, the third week of June was their busiest week for spraying. And this cut-off date fell right in that time frame. In addition, if weather conditions during that time were not ideal, spraying could not be done, either.
So, here comes this season, the first with the June 20 deadline, and we have a “perfect storm” of sorts in regard to soybean production. Heavy snows in April pushed planting dates back from normal, and then heavy rains, especially in southern Minnesota, pushed them back even further in some localized areas. Then, to top things off, hot temperatures and high winds made spraying impossible during the days leading up to the cut-off date.
Anticipating the difficulty with getting soybeans sprayed by the deadline, a letter asking for an extension signed by 14 legislators was sent to the Dept. of Ag the week before. That request was denied, as was a similar request by the Soybean Growers sent on June 18.
To be fair, there was not universal support for an extension. There is concern about drift damage, and if the number of complaints this year was similar to last year, the chemical could be taken totally off the market. It was my opinion that because of the weather conditions that didn’t allow spraying in the days leading up to the deadline and the variability of crop development across the state, an extension of some duration was warranted.
However, that extension was not granted, and we must move on. Other pesticides will have to be substituted, and farmers will need to watch for “escape weeds” and use other means to try and control them. It was estimated by one area agronomist that as few as 5 to 10 percent of the Dicamba-resistant soybeans planted around here this year will actually have Dicamba sprayed on them.
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It’s expected the Public Utilities Commission will rule this week on whether or not to allow the construction of a replacement crude oil pipeline in northern Minnesota. Also in the news is a report of a train derailment of oil cars in Iowa and thousands of gallons of crude being spilled into a river. Pipelines are the safest way to transport this product, and it’s estimated that 10,000 rail cars or 24,000 tanker trucks would be needed per day to replace what this proposed pipeline could move. It will be very interesting to see what the PUC decides.
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