A federal appeals court ruling on dicamba herbicides issued Wednesday has thrown the ag industry into confusion, Emily Unglesbee of Progressive Farmer report.
The ruling was the result of a lawsuit filed in 2017 by a group of farm and environmental groups, which said the EPA violated its governing law (the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act, FIFRA) and the Endangered Species Act when it registered XtendiMax.
The judges did not rule on the lawsuit’s Endangered Species Act claims, but they did rule that EPA violated FIFRA in multiple ways. The judges ruled they underestimated the risks of dicamba herbicides used over a wide average, as well as ongoing off-target, injure from 2016-2018.
The ruling only applies to the use of three herbicides, XtendiMax (Bayer), Engenia (BASF), and FeXapan (Corteva), over the top of dicamba-tolerant soybeans and cotton. The ruling does not appear to apply to the use of these herbicides on other, non-Xtend crops that may be listed on their labels.