Changes on herbicide labels may change spraying procedures

OTTAWA, Ill. — Changes are happening on the labels of herbicide products that may impact the way farmers spray their crops.

“The Endangered Species Act was passed in 1973 and it mandates that every federal agency has to ensure that any actions that they take will not threaten or bring into jeopardy any listed federal species,” said Aaron Hager, associate professor in the Department of Crop Sciences at the University of Illinois.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is responsible for pesticide registrations.

“But it’s not just EPA; if the Department of Transportation wants to put in a new bridge somewhere, they have to ensure the proposed action would not violate the Endangered Species Act,” Hager said.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service are the two agencies that are responsible for the enforcement of the Endangered Species Act.

“For the last 50-plus years these two agencies should have had some involvement in pesticide registration and in essence they really haven’t and that’s why we’re here today,” said Hager during the Endangered Species Act Grower Workshop in Ottawa, hosted by the Illinois Farm Bureau, Illinois Soybean Association and Illinois Corn Growers Association.

The Fish and Wildlife Service works with terrestrial species and the National Marine and Fisheries Service handles the marine species.

“We have both of those in Illinois,” Hager said. “The U.S. Department of Agriculture is also involved in this because they do a lot of the assessment on how these changes impact what you do on a day-to-day basis.”

Organizations have realized the EPA has not completed consultations with the services as they are completing pesticide registrations so they have filed lawsuits.

“A megasuit was filed that challenged the registration of more than 1,000 pesticide products,” Hager said. “In the settlement that occurred in September 2023, the U.S. EPA agreed to bring itself into compliance with its obligations under the Endangered Species Act.”

The EPA has three options.

“They can remove a pesticide from the marketplace,” Hager said. “That happened a little over a year ago in Arizona when the court vacated the labels of the soybean dicamba products, which is the worst-case scenario that we don’t want to see happen.”

The second option is to restrict pesticide use geographically where the active ingredients can be used, based on the presence of a threatened or endangered species.

“That would be a nightmare logistically because there are about 1,700 federally listed threatened and endangered species,” Hager said.

EPA chose the third option, which is to add mitigations to minimize the impact of a pesticide moving out of its targeted area.

“Every county in Illinois has at least one threatened or endangered species,” Hager said. “About half of the 1,700 species in the U.S. are plants and that’s a reason why we’re seeing the herbicide strategy first.”

Herbicide labels will change whenever a company is moving a new active ingredient through the registration process and the EPA completes the Endangered Species Act process.

All herbicide products currently registered must go through reregistration every 15 years.

“That’s when they will have the ESA consideration added,” Hager said. “So, 15 years from now, every herbicide label likely will have gone through this ESA process.”

The herbicide strategies were released in August.

“The Pesticide Usage Limitation Areas, or PULAs, are areas where there could be a listed species or a federally designated critical habitat where additional restrictions might occur,” Hager said.

“You are going to have to do the herbicide strategy for every field at least once,” he said. “But that does not mean that every one of your fields is going to have mitigations.”

The good news is farmers can start evaluating their fields.

“You only have three product labels that have the ESA in the marketplace right now,” Hager said. “So, you can start the process now to know whether or not you’re going to have to think about mitigations in the future.”

The first step is to read the label of the herbicide.

“That’s where you will find out if you have a spray drift buffer and how many runoff/erosion points you will have to satisfy,” Hager said. “And you will also need to look at ‘Bulletins Live! Two’ to see if there’s anything else you have to do.”

Spray drift buffers are on the downwind side only.

“For ground applications, 230 feet is the maximum downwind infield buffer that you would have to leave,” Hager said. “There will also be additional language for spray drift such as maximum wind speed or maximum boom heights above the targeted canopy.”

The size of the buffer requirement can be reduced.

“For example, if you have to leave a 50-foot buffer and you have a 20-foot-wide windbreak, you can include that in your buffer,” Hager said. “If you have a strip of CRP that’s 10-feet wide, you can include that in your buffer, so instead of having to leave 50-feet, now you’re down to a 20-foot infield buffer.”

The critical number for runoff and erosion is 1,000 feet on the downslope side of a field.

“There’s a point requirement for runoff and erosion mitigation that ranges from zero to nine points,” Hager said.

“There are 40 different ways to acquire mitigation points and the number of points you’re going to be required is largely going to be based on the use of the active ingredient for that particular scenario.”

Not every field will require runoff and erosion mitigation points.

“If your field borders to your neighbor’s field and that field on the downslope side of your field is 1,000 feet wide, then you’re done,” Hager said. “But if there’s an unmanaged area within 1,000 feet of the downslope side of your field, you will need runoff mitigation points.”

Relief points are set for every Illinois county.

“What is nice about these is you take them right off the top,” Hager said. “Piatt and Warren counties have three relief points, 89 counties have two relief points and some counties in southern Illinois get zero points.”

Some of the ways to get mitigation points include talking to a certified crop adviser, tracking mitigations, using conservation tillage or planting cover crops.

“The nice thing that EPA did was make a mitigation calculator that is available online,” Hager said. “You select your state and county and it will keep track of the points as you make selections.”

“If you get nine or more points, you’re good to go and that’s the only time you have to do it,” he said.