As of July 20, the Minnesota Agriculture Department received 91 dicamba complaints. There were 21 total complaints in 2019. “It all started the first week of June. It was chaotic both from a legal standpoint with the courts and also, atmospherically,” said Josh Stamper, pesticide and fertilizer management division director, MDA. “When we look at the weather data during that period of time, there weren’t a lot of good spraying conditions. We started seeing a lot of drift complaints coming in one-to-two weeks after that time period. More recently, we’ve started to get more complaints coming in from folks continuing to make dicamba applications very late in the season, well after the June 20 cutoff date. We’re actively pursuing those investigations.” If growers want to continue to use this technology, Stamper said applicators need to be a steward. The State of North Dakota has had ten drift complaints this year, compared to two in 2019.
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