By TIM ALEXANDER

Illinois Correspondent

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. — Illinois farmers will need to apply dicamba by June 20, 2020 under new label restrictions for the controversial herbicide announced by John Sullivan, director of the Illinois Department of Agriculture (IDOA). Also new: farmers will not be able to apply the product if the air temperature is above or expected to top 85 degrees Fahrenheit.

Other conditions remain unchanged, such as mandatory consultation of the FieldWatch sensitive crop registry before applications, and maintaining a label-specified downwind buffer between the last treated row and the nearest downfield edge of any Illinois Nature Preserves Commission site.

Dicamba retailers and the Illinois Fertilizer and Chemical Association (IFCA), however, are still awaiting the issuance of new dicamba labeling language before they can begin offering “label-specified” advice to farmers and other approved applicators as to how to best use the herbicide during the 2020 growing season.

“The only thing that has really changed is the 85 degree temperature cut (there was no temperature threshold last year), and the cutoff date. Last year it was originally June 30, then we moved it to July 15. Now we are going to June 20,” said Kevin Johnson, director of government and industry relations for the IFCA. “We still need some clarification on the temperature cutoff — is that the forecast temperature or actual temperature? Or is by the temperature whenever that sprayer hits the field? We are working on that. It was a curveball that was thrown in at the last second.”

The new requirements were spurred, in part, by the explosion in the number of dicamba-related complaints filed with the IDOA this year; so far 725 complaints of off-target dicamba applications have been received as of Oct. 11, compared with 330 all of last year.

“Of the 725 dicamba cases, they were filed by 488 individuals. Only 46 of those 488 individuals were repeat complainers from last year, dismissing theories by some that only a handful of individuals were responsible for all the complaints,” said Johnson, referring to an IDOA memo. “Last year, 205 individuals filed the 330 complaints. This year, on average, each individual who signed a misuse form was responsible for 1.4 of the complaints, which is lower than last year at 1.6 complaints per person.”

The IDOA is taking action to reduce the number of dicamba-related complaints in 2020, according to Sullivan. “These additional restrictions were reached after careful consideration with our Environmental Programs team at the Department, as well as input from stakeholders in the agriculture industry,” he said.

In addition the state’s provisions, applicators must follow federal guidelines and pass an annual certified applicator training course to legally apply dicamba.

For more details on 2020 dicamba restrictions, announced Oct. 11, visit the Illinois Fertilizer and Chemical Association website, www.ifca.com. The website will also offer a link to sign up for to-be-announced dicamba training certification classes for applicators.

“I’m hoping here in the next week we will have those labels,” said Johnson. “As soon as we get those labels we will post them for everybody to see, and we will post online and classroom training dates, which are still a work in progress. If you are going to spray one of the four approved dicamba formulations in 2020, you will have to pass a certification class first.”