Many farm states across the country are dealing with complaints of dicamba damage in soybean crops. The reasons behind these complaints are many and answers are going to be a challenge to come up with. Chris Proctor is an Assistant Extension Educator with the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. He says most folks would be surprised how small the amount of product it takes to show damage in beans:
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Researchers in northeast Nebraska are working on getting a more concrete idea of how much product it would take to get from curling the leaves on plants to actual yield loss. The actual amount of yield loss is tough to predict. Proctor says it depends on the amount of product a soybean plant was exposed to:
He says some of the many fields hit by dicamba damage may not experience as much yield loss as some might expect. Professor Amit Jhala says one of the keys to recovery may be late season rainfall after some fell this year offering farmers a big of a break:
Jhala inspected fields in several parts of Nebraska and says after what they looked like in July, the post-August rains really seemed to help:
Both Nebraska Extension officials say that it’s hard to know for sure what to expect as combines roll and they’ll have more answers after the final harvest numbers come in.