Georgia cotton growers concerned about Arizona Dicamba ruling

ALBANY, Ga. (WALB) - There are a lot of cotton growers in Georgia concerned about an Arizona court ruling about Dicamba, a herbicide that kills weeds.

Georgia Cotton Commission Chairman Bart Davis speaks on why Georgia growers are concerned.

“Well, we’re concerned. I mean, I think it was 2017 when that came and we could start buying the that came with treats and our seed and Dicamba is a very useful tool we use. For some of our major pests, pigweed, and then morning glories. And this is one of the few chemicals out there that we can do a really good job controlling.”

“And already what you’re concerned about as well as you know, just it being the court ruling to say the EPA should not allow it. But a lot of growers here, have already made their decisions on what they’re going to grow. This could actually concern what they’ve already purchased for next year.”

“That’s correct, Jim. And what we’re waiting on now is, so the EPA should respond to the court ruling and we don’t know. Well, I mean, nobody knows the answer right now. We don’t know, but hopefully that. You know, they’ll appeal it. Maybe they may not, but then whatever happens there, then we’ll be able to let us know if we can use existing stocks. I mean, you know, the chemical has already made, or it’s already in the farmer’s hands or whatnot. Hopefully, we’ll be able to use existing stocks. But then not only that is the future, you know, are we going to be able to use it in the future? I mean, Georgia has really done a really good job for their true diligence. Cowen Culpepper, a weed scientist from UGA has done a great job. Georgia has had very few drift complaints with Dicamba, so they come up with this program where they train the growers every year and their workers that applies it. So since it started being able to use it, leave all of it. Went through training using pesticides, wisely training. We’ve trained over 17,000 people in the state since that’s come about. So we’ve done all here at Georgia. We’ve done a really good job training. And Stanley’s protocol about how to put it out using the right tips, you know, looking at your wind temperatures, if you go by that protocol, you ain’t going to have no problems. Cotten is Georgia’s number one grow crop. We grow around 1.2 million acres of Georgian and cotton is real vital to Georgia economy.”

“All right, Bart Davis with the Georgia Cotton Commission. Thank you very much for joining us.”

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