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| I have sprayed 1700 acres with Extend this year with zero issues. I sprayed next to gardens, fruit trees and right along other non Dicamba crops with no problems. My wife has even hand sprayed all year around our house, yard, flowerbeds and garden with zero issues. I sprayed replanted beans that was first R2 but was replanted with extend. I sprayed right up to Roundup 2 beans. I only killed what the sprayer boom hit. I had no problems because the wind was right.
When I heard of concerns in our area I went to look at the fields to understand what the issues were. I find researching the facts helps me to learn. Two fields were sprayed on hills overlooking bottom ground, down wind, these where days I didn’t spray, too windy. The sprayers believed it got up and moved, but it was drift. One field was a contaminated sprayer. One field was Banvil drift from spraying corn, upwind. Two places were pre’s being harsh on crops. Two fields the farmers believed there was damage but there wasn’t. One of these farmers thought his field was damaged when there were no Dicamba used on the extend beans next to him. Two fields were Roundup beans, one had Liberty drift damage the other tank contamination with Liberty.
A few other facts I observed is that Blazer, Cobra and Liberty doesn’t kill water hemp but burns it down, but does not kill it. Looking thru those fields now, they are loaded with water hemp. Some of them were sprayed two and three times trying to kill it.
I need this technology and a lot of people do. Some haven’t been watching the decline in weed control in our area.
I think some sprayers need to learn to spray all chemistry correctly. Boom height and speed seems to be major problem areas. Training and education would help with this.
I had to learn by my mistakes as well. I bought a garden and flowers beds with a 24D drift several years ago a quarter mile away from where I was spraying. It was me for sure, I was the only in the area spraying and by morning I had an unhappy lady to find all her efforts were laying flat.
Some people think the new 24D products coming out soon will be the answer, but I feel like they will be no different than Extend products, as far as spraying challenges.
The fact is Extend beans are the cleanest and best looking beans in the area. Not by just a little but a lot. Good spray operators can make it work and be well paid. Success of the Extend program is being ignored. Problems have been blown out of proportion, mostly because they don’t like Monsanto, got caught cleaning roundup beans, believing rumors without finding out the facts, or they are selling or growing Liberty seed beans. They are making the most negative comments and keeping the pot stirred.
We need Dicamba technology to control these weeds. Change is hard, but unless we adapt, the weeds will win the war.
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My Oberservation and Experience with Dicamba this year
