The Minnesota Department of Agriculture (MDA) denied late Friday afternoon the Minnesota Soybean Growers Association’s request for a 10-day extension of the June 20 dicamba application cutoff date.

The product cannot be applied in Minnesota after Saturday, June 20.

The 2020 Minnesota restriction is in addition to those established by the U.S. EPA. The affected formulations are XtendiMax, Engenia, FeXapan and Tavium.

The June 20, 2020, cutoff date is based on the MDA’s ongoing investigations and informal surveys into reports of crop damage from alleged dicamba off-target movement over the past three growing seasons.

To manage weeds after cutoff times, herbicides from Group 9 (products containing glyphosate), Group 2 (such as Pursuit, Classic, FirstRate), and Group 14 (such as Flexstar, Cobra, Cadet, Ultra Blazer) can be used. If farmers have herbicide resistant weeds such as waterhemp, MDA recommends following the University of Minnesota Extension recommendations on layering of residual herbicides such as Dual, Outlook, Warrant, and Zidua.

On Monday, MSGA Executive Director Joe Smentek issued a request to MDA Commissioner Thom Petersen for a 10-day extension of the June 20 dicamba cutoff date. The request came following MDA announcing it would allow farmers to use dicamba after a recent court ruling that overturned EPA’s approval of several dicamba-based herbicides.

“We appreciate Commissioner Petersen’s considering our request, but we’re disappointed by the decision,” says Bob Worth, chair of MSGA’s farmer-led Drift Task Force.