Last week, a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals invalidated the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act registrations of three post-emerge dicamba products, including Bayer’s XtendiMax, Corteva’s FeXapan and BASF’s Engenia. The lawsuit triggering the ruling was initiated by four environmental activist groups in California.
If a stay is not issued pending an appeal, the immediate effect is that these products can no longer be used or purchased by farmers for weed control in dicamba resistant soybeans and cotton, which some estimate could have plantings of nearly 60 million acres in 2020. EPA has clarified that growers and commercial applicators may use existing stocks that were in their possession on June 3, 2020, the effective date of the court decision The court ruling does not appear to impact the registration of other dicamba products approved for pre-emerge use and for use on other crops like corn and sorghum. Additionally, the ruling does not appear to affect EPA’s registration of Syngenta’s Tavium herbicide that contains dicamba and is labeled for post-emerge use in soybeans and cotton. KLA will provide updates as more information becomes available.