Additional Illinois-Specific Dicamba Restrictions for Applications in Soybean

The Illinois Department of Agriculture recently announced additional restrictions for dicamba applications to soybean. In addition to the requirements of the federally-approved labels, all use on soybean of pesticides containing dicamba in Illinois shall comply with the following requirements:

Temperature Restriction: A pesticide containing dicamba shall not be applied on soybean if the air temperature at the field at the time of application is over 85 degrees Fahrenheit or if the National Weather Service’s forecasted high temperature for the nearest available location for the day of application exceeds 85 degrees Fahrenheit. Local National Weather Service forecasts are available at https://www.weather.gov.

Application Date Restriction: Application on soybean of a pesticide containing dicamba shall not be made after June 20 of each year.

Sensitive Crop Registry: Before applying a pesticide containing dicamba on soybeans, the applicator shall consult the FieldWatch sensitive crop registry (https://www.fieldwatch.com) and comply with all associated recordkeeping and label requirements.

Application on soybean of a pesticide containing dicamba shall not be made if the wind is blowing toward: any Illinois Nature Preserves Commission site that is adjacent to the field of application; or an adjacent residential area.

Detailed information on the name of each preserve site (by area within the State), the number of acres, and where the Nature Preserves are located in each county, is available here:  https://www.dnr.illinois.gov/INPC/Pages/NaturePreserveDirectory.aspx

To determine if a Nature Preserve site is an area where you may want to apply dicamba to soybean, click on your “area” within this link and you can preview a list of DNR sites by County within the area.  If you then click on the name of the site, it will bring up detailed information about the size, location and a topography map of the site.