NORTH PLATTE, Neb. — Training for Nebraska applicators who plan to use new restricted use pesticide (RUP) dicamba products will be conducted March 1 through Red Willow County Nebraska Extension at the Red Willow County Fairgrounds 4-H building. Two sessions will be offered, 9:30am and 1:30pm. Registration for each will begin 30 minutes before the session. Red Willow Chemical & Fertilizer is sponsoring the training and Nebraska Extension is conducting the training. The RUP dicamba training is required for everyone applying RUP dicamba and is separate from the Private Pesticide Applicator license training. Kansas farmers wishing to apply RUP dicamba may attend this training since it has been approved by the Kansas Department of Agriculture for RUP dicamba use in Kansas. Those desiring to attend must call the Red Willow Extension Office to sign up for the training and specify which session they will attend, morning or afternoon. Attendees must also bring their pesticide license number or card to the training.
Nebraska applicators completing the new training may apply Monsanto’s XtendiMax, DuPont’s FeXapan and BASF’s Engenia on genetically modified Xtend soybeans. These herbicides kill broadleaf weeds but not Xtend soybeans. Since soybeans are also broadleaf plants, problems arise when traditional, or non-Xtend soybeans, have dicamba-related injuries.
“All state-licensed applicators, either private or commercial, who plan to use the new products in 2018, must undergo new, label-required training before applying them,” said Clyde Ogg, pesticide extension educator and coordinator of Nebraska Extension’s Pesticide Safety Education Program (PSEP). PSEP, along with the Nebraska Department of Agriculture (NDA), spearheaded the new video training.
“Unlicensed individuals who plan to apply the new products must have both the traditional NDA-issued license to apply RUPs and complete the RUP dicamba training. The Nebraska Department of Agriculture will maintain a list of trained applicators as proof for RUP dicamba applicators” according to Robert Tigner, UNL Extension Educator.
Tigner said the dicamba training is designed to help applicators better protect traditional soybeans and other sensitive crops from damage caused by particle drift, tank contamination, temperature inversions and volatility. Also, the training will help applicators better understand the extensive new dicamba requirements for timing and recordkeeping.
“The three new RUP dicamba labels have mandatory recordkeeping components that far exceed anything previously seen,” Tigner said.
The no-cost dicamba training is comprised of four video modules that should take less than two hours to complete. Topics include off-target herbicide movement and how to prevent it; equipment settings and weather restrictions; and information required specifically for Nebraska.
A comprehensive listing of dicamba topics from NDA is found at http://www.nda.nebraska.gov/pesticide/dicamba.html.
The new training requirement comes after the federal Environmental Protection Agency in October classified the three newer dicamba products as RUPs, and added new application, timing and recordkeeping requirements to the labels. Nationally in 2017 more than 2,200 complaints about dicamba were said to have injured more than 3 million US soybean acres.
To get registered for the RUP dicamba training call the Red Willow Extension office and inform the office whether you will attend the morning or afternoon session. The phone number is 308-345-3390.
— UNL Extension
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