July 29, 2024 Thierry Besancon
Autonomous straddling robot for vineyard – Public demo on August 2, 2024, in Landisville
March 11, 2024 Thierry Besancon
Endangered Species Act: What will soon change for pesticide labelling and uses?
Endangered Species Act and Pesticides: How will pesticide labels change to protect endangered species?
Wednesday, March 20 at 11 a.m – Webinar
Enacted in 1973, the Endangered Species Act (ESA) requires all federal agencies to consider the impact to threatened and endangered species and their critical habitat when making decisions. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has faced numerous lawsuits for its failure to consider the Act when issuing pesticide registrations—resulting in a 2023 commitment from the Agency’s Office of Pesticide Programs that puts the ESA at the forefront of all future registrations and some registration renewals.
The NYS IPM program at Cornell will be hosting Dr. Bill Chism, Chair of the Endangered Species Act Committee for the Weed Science Society of America (WSSA), to give a webinar on March 20th (at 11 a.m.) with the following objectives:
- • Inform us about the history of Endangered Species Act (ESA),
- Discuss the requirements of all Federal agencies to comply with the ESA,
- Describe the EPA’s current workplan (including the proposed Herbicide Strategy) to meet their statutory obligations,
- Explains what this might mean for future pesticide labeling efforts.
Registration: Endangered Species Act and Pesticides: An Example | CALS (cornell.edu)
About the Speaker
Bill Chism is the chair of the Endangered Species Act Committee of the Weed Science Society of America (WSSA). He retired after more than two decades with the EPA, where he conducted assessments on the benefits of pesticides to farmers as part of the registration review process. Bill grew up working on a vegetable farm in the Salinas Valley of California. He worked in extension researching weed control research on vegetable crops before earning his PhD in Weed Science from Virginia Tech and spent 10 years working for a pesticide registrant.
March 6, 2024 Thierry Besancon
Take a quick survey to help with Field Equipment Sanitation Research!
In a Specialty Crop Research Initiative (SCRI) grant designed to guide future solution and resources centered around field equipment sanitation, collaborative team comprising pathologists, weed scientists, agronomists, and experts in agricultural equipment sanitation has crafted a questionnaire. This questionnaire is designed to gather growers’ input on their current practices and determine the necessity for implementing new ones.
The research will develop a more comprehensive understanding of the challenges associated with field equipment sanitation and work toward developing solutions that are effective, implementable and sustainable.
To introduce the survey and forthcoming research effort, Dr. Matt Grieshop, lead PI on this project indicates that “We are a group of agricultural research and extension professionals from across the United States that are curious about grower and agricultural professional perceptions about the importance of field equipment sanitation to mitigate the spread of organisms that pose human health, weed, plant pathogen or other risks.
Agricultural field equipment includes tillage implements, tractors, harvesters, cultivation equipment, trucks, trailers, sprayers, mowers, or any other piece of equipment that is shared across fields.
This information will be solely used to help frame future research questions and outreach activities. It will not be published or distributed in any form. Answering should take 5 minutes or less and is completely voluntary and anonymous.
Your participation is invaluable to future developments in the industry regarding food safety and equipment sanitation. We need more inputs from New Jersey specialty crops growers so that they have a say on the direction that field equipment sanitation research will take in the future!
To contribute, visit here or scan the QR code below.
If you have questions, comments or concerns contact Dr. Matt Grieshop at mgriesho@calpoly.edu or Dr. Thierry Besancon at thierry.besancon@rutgers.edu.
February 21, 2024 Thierry Besancon
Update on Xtend-specific dicamba products registration
On February 6, 2024, the U.S. District Court of Arizona vacated the registrations of three dicamba products (Engenia 5L, Xtendimax 2.9L and Tavium 3.39CS) labeled for over-the-top use in Xtend and XtendFlex soybean systems. After several days of uncertainty, we now have guidance from the EPA about use of these products in the 2024 growing season. Based on the Court’s decision, the EPA considers these products to be no longer registered but allows for use of existing stocks under limited conditions:
- Use of products: The EPA’s “existing stocks order” allows private and commercial applicators to use existing stocks that were acquired by May 31, 2024. Applications of these products are permitted until June 30, 2024, in Xtend brand soybean fields.
- Distribution and sale: The EPA order limits further distribution and sales of these products to only existing stocks that were in possession of dealers prior to February 6, 2024, to facilitate use of the product by the June 30 deadline. In other words, the major manufacturers/registrants of these products are not allowed to sell them anymore, but any dealers with an existing inventory may sell these products until May 31, 2024, and applicators may spray them, according to their label, until June 30, 2024.
- Dicamba training: To use any of these Xtend-specific dicamba products, special dicamba training must be done annually to purchase and apply them. Training is reciprocal across brands, meaning an applicator only needs to take one dicamba-specific training each year; no matter what product is used, and which organization does the training. For more information about online dicamba training options and other specifics see:
Keep in mind, other dicamba-containing products such as Clarity, Diflexx, Status, and the many generics cannot be legally sprayed over-the-top of Xtend brand soybeans. However, the use of glyphosate and glufosinate (Liberty, etc.) products can still be used depending on the variety.
Enlist E3 soybean varieties have not been affected by this lawsuit and thus registered 2,4-D choline products (Enlist One and Duo) can be used in that system. These and other 2,4-D products cannot be applied over-the-top in Xtend/XtendFlex soybean systems, otherwise major crop damage will occur.
We will continue to provide updates if more details emerge. The EPA order and summary can be found here: Existing Stocks Order for Dicamba Products Previously Registered for Over-the-Top Use on Dicamba-Tolerant Cotton and Soybean (PDF).
February 21, 2024 Thierry Besancon
The 2024 Mid-Atlantic Weed Control Guide for Agronomic Crops is now available!
The 2024 Mid-Atlantic Weed Control Guide: Essentials for Agronomic Crops is now available for purchase from Penn State Extension in print ($10) or as a digital download ($8). A bundle that includes both versions can be purchased for $18. More information about this guide is available at https://extension.psu.edu/weed-guide.
Penn State Extension (Dwight Lingenfelter and Dr. John Wallace) produces this publication in cooperation with the University of Delaware (Dr. Mark VanGessel), the University of Maryland (Dr. Kurt Vollmer), Rutgers University (Dr. Thierry Besancon), Virginia Tech (Drs. Michael Flessner and Vijay Singh) and West Virginia University (Dr. Rakesh Chandran).
The guide contains essential tables about herbicide recommendations and general use guidelines for corn, sorghum, soybean, small grains, forages and farmstead.
It also offers herbicide effectiveness ratings on problem weeds such as henbit, horsenettle, horseweed/marestail, palmer amaranth and waterhemp, common pokeweed, common ragweed, giant ragweed, annual ryegrass, broadleaf and curly dock, johnsongrass and shattercane, lambsquarters, milkweed and hemp dogbane, Canada thistle, and other species.
Featuring updated herbicide tables from the 2023-24 edition of the Penn State Agronomy Guide, this condensed, quick-reference manual highlights basic information about herbicide-use recommendations and herbicide effectiveness on common weed species in the region.
January 17, 2024 Thierry Besancon
Have A Say in Field Equipment Sanitation Research!
In an initiative to guide future solution and resources, the Specialty Crop Research Initiative (SCRI) has designed the Sanitation of Agricultural Field Equipment Questionnaire to begin the research process centered around field equipment sanitation.
The research will develop a more comprehensive understanding of the challenges associated with field equipment sanitation and work toward developing solutions that are effective, implementable and sustainable.
To introduce the survey and forthcoming research effort, Dr. Matt Grieshop Director at The Grimm Family Center for Organic Production and Research College of Agriculture, Food and Environmental Sciences Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo says,
“We are a group of agricultural research and extension professionals from across the United States that are curious about grower and agricultural professional perceptions about the importance of field equipment sanitation to mitigate the spread of organisms that pose human health, weed, plant pathogen or other risks.
Agricultural field equipment includes tillage implements, tractors, harvesters, cultivation equipment, trucks, trailers, sprayers, mowers, or any other piece of equipment that is shared across fields.
This information will be solely used to help frame future research questions and outreach activities. It will not be published or distributed in any form. Answering should take 5 minutes or less and is completely voluntary and anonymous.
If you have questions, comments or concerns contact Dr. Matt Grieshop at mgriesho@calpoly.edu
Thank you for sharing your experience. We truly appreciate the gift of your time and knowledge.”
Your participation is invaluable to future developments in the industry regarding food safety and equipment sanitation.
To contribute, visit here.
For any questions regarding this project, contact Thierry Besancon at thierry.besancon@rutgers.edu.
——
Thierry E. Besançon, PhD
Associate Professor / Extension Weed Science Specialist
