By Clint Thompson
The Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) approval of multiple dicamba products to be used on cotton and soybeans was supposed to be a win for growers in their fight against annual weeds like palmer amaranth. But the label’s complexity may preclude producers from following through with dicamba’s usage during the next two approved seasons.
The Georgia Cotton Commission and University of Georgia Extension weed scientist Stanley Culpepper wanted growers to be educated about the new registration requirements, which have been a part of this year’s Using Pesticides Wisely (UPW) trainings in Georgia.
“There are a lot of restrictions and regulations in place on these labels and places a lot of liability on the farmer if something goes wrong,” Culpepper said. “It makes the label very difficult to follow.
“If it rains 20 inches and pigweed gets big, then dicamba comes out. If we can be timely with alternative systems, I think quite a few growers may choose that opportunity just because it’s so complicated.”
The EPA announced back in early February that it had established the “strongest protections” in the agency’s history for over-the-top dicamba application on dicamba-tolerant cotton and soybean crops. The move was made for the next two growing seasons.
New Restrictions
There are many new restrictions for the 2026 registration, each designed to reduce drift, minimize volatility and protect ecosystems.
These include:
- Maximum application rate cut in half; two applications of 0.5 pounds of dicamba per acre may be applied annually.
- Doubled volatility reduction agents: 40 ounces per acre of approved Volatility Reduction Agent must be added to every application.
- Growers must achieve three runoff/erosion mitigation points from EPA’s certified conservation practices menu on each treated field to protect endangered and threatened species. Some pesticide use limitation areas (PULAs) require additional safeguards and six points are required.
- For applications on a day with temperatures forecasted between 85 degrees Fahrenheit (F) and 95 F on the day of or day after application, a user may only treat up to 50% of their untreated dicamba-tolerant cotton. Remaining acres may not be treated until at least two days after the initial application.
UPW Trainings
UGA has hosted pesticide-based trainings since 2015, helping the state’s cotton growers improve their on-target pesticide applications. Culpepper stresses that incidences of drift have been reduced significantly.
“The whole goal of the training is to help them understand the label and the label requirements. They already know how good the technology is. There’s a reason we have been using that tool, and obviously, we have been using it very effectively,” Culpepper said. “We have reduced pesticide drift over 91%. At the same time, we’ve adopted all of these technologies. Our guys can do it.”
Growers must now decide if the new label requirements are “worth the risk” to apply it this year or be timely with alternative systems.
“I always talk about, there are plant protection tools that are being removed from the market, and there are plant protection tools where their labels are being altered to where they’re no longer practical. That is where we’re at or just about at with dicamba,” Culpepper said. “What that does is it hurts your grower and hurts their ability to have the tools we need in the toolbox, and that’s really unfortunate.”