WASHINGTON – On February 6, 2024, the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona issued a ruling which nullified the 2020 registrations of three dicamba herbicides: Bayer Xtendimax, BASF Engenia, and Syngenta Tavium. The Court found the agency violated notice and comment requirements for “new use” pesticide registrations for over-the-top (OTT) dicamba use on dicamba-tolerant (DT) crops under the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA).

The following week, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released an existing stocks order for the previously registered dicamba products. According to the agency, this order addresses the use of  “dicamba products and authorizes limited sale and distribution of dicamba products that are already in the possession of growers or in the channels of trade and outside the control of the pesticide companies.”

Under the order, North Dakota soybean growers are authorized to use existing stocks through June 30, 2024. Persons other than registrants (Bayer, BASF, and Syngenta), including but not limited to co-ops and commercial distributors, can sell and distribute existing stocks through May 31, 2024. EPA clarified these end dates for the use of existing stock are “consistent with the application cut-off dates on the previously approved labeling of the formerly-registered dicamba products at the time of vacatur.”

U.S. Senator Kevin Cramer (R-ND) joined U.S. Senator Roger Marshall, M.D. (R-KS) and their colleagues in sending a letter to EPA Administrator Michael Regan insisting the agency further respond to the U.S. District Court’s decision by pursuing an appeal as well as seeking a stay of the decision pending the appeal. Additionally, the senators requested the agency expand the existing stocks order to include, “product within the possession of registrants that has been manufactured and ready for sale on the date of the decision to be distributed, sold, and used.”

The nullification of the EPA’s 2020 registrations for the dicamba-based herbicides comes as farmers across the country have already made planting decisions on seed genetics and crop protection tools for their cotton and soybeans. The senators explained the decision out of Arizona will be felt globally, as the United States is one of the world’s leading soybean and cotton producers, a leading soybean exporter, and the leading cotton exporter.

“While the existing stocks order helps, EPA can do more to alleviate the impact of this decision,” the senators wrote. “U.S. farmers are already coping with record input costs, crippling interest rates, and lackluster commodity prices. […] The last thing farmers need now is to lose access to critical crop protection tools in which they have already invested thousands of dollars and on which they have based this year’s planting decisions.”

“Access to safe, effective crop protection tools is vital for allowing farmers to continue to efficiently and sustainably feed, clothe, and fuel the world,” continued the senators. “We respectfully ask for your prompt attention to this court decision so that farmers may continue to do so.”

Additional cosigners include U.S. Senators Jerry Moran (R-KS), Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-MS), Thom Tillis (R-NC), John Hoeven (R-ND), Pete Ricketts (R-NE), Tommy Tuberville (R-AL), James Lankford (R-OK), Bill Hagerty (R-TN), Katie Boyd Britt (R-AL), Chuck Grassley (R-IA), Ted Budd (R-NC), Deb Fischer (R-NE), Mike Braun (R-IN), Ted Cruz (R-TX), Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), John Thune (R-SD), Joni Ernst (R-IA), and Todd Young (R-IN).

This letter is also supported by several agriculture groups, including the North Dakota Agricultural Association, American Farm Bureau Federation, Agricultural Retailers Association, American Soybean Association, CropLife America, and the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture.

Click here for the letter.