# Herbicide drift?



## MrLuggs (Dec 14, 2015)

So one of my new seedings this year had completely died off - I was pondering whether it was just because it was a super-dry summer here in Mid-michigan, but was really not sure. Was talking to one of the old timers today and showing him the photos of before/after and he was fairly certain that it'd been sprayed. Could it be that the neighbor sprayed dicamba on his beans and it drifted over my hay field? (Edited to add that I'm not necessarily sure it was dicamba, just seems like everyone's using it around here this year on their beans).

Seeded it May 20 with 10lb alfalfa, 4lb OG, 4lb timothy, 2lb brome, got pretty good germination - here's a photo on July 27th when I did my first cutting:









And this is the same field, in a similar location (albeit panorama shot) from November 1, before any frosts:









I'm really at a loss as to what would cause this apart from drift. It was dry, but we've had a ridiculous amount of rain since about october 1, and there's basically 0 regrowth.

It's only on the part of the field that directly adjoins the neighbors field. As you can see on the panorama, the right side of the field in front of the woods is nice and green.

Thoughts?


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## somedevildawg (Jun 20, 2011)

Could be.....not sure how to go about finding out, perhaps tissue/root samples would be the best start....whatever happened seemed to affect the entire field, not spotty at all...


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## MrLuggs (Dec 14, 2015)

Made up a quick map of the field to show the relative locations


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## somedevildawg (Jun 20, 2011)

It ain't lookin too good for the neighbor.......nothing on the south (lower) end of that field damaged?


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## Vol (Jul 5, 2009)

Pretty sure that Dicamba will not kill the grasses at that growth stage.....but DC will smoke the legumes(alfalfa).

Regards, Mike


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## Vol (Jul 5, 2009)

Did you happen to notice if the hardwood tree leaves were "cupped" any?....I noticed around the field edge it looks like there were many hardwoods.

Regards, Mike


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## MrLuggs (Dec 14, 2015)

I'll have to go out and do some more scouting tomorrow (opening day today) to get some more exact data. I'd originally attributed it to just being a dry year, but I showed the photo to one of the old timers at lunch today and he mentioned that it looked like it had been sprayed, which brings us to where we are now.

Not 100% sure it was dicamba used, I know a lot of people are using it this year because of all the roundup resistant mares tail in the area, but yeah, could be anything.


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## Vol (Jul 5, 2009)

Also, did you happen to notice if you had any broadleaf weeds in the deceased field earlier and are they dead also. That would be a sure sign chemical eradication.

Regards, Mike


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## swmnhay (Jun 13, 2008)

Roundup?But holy crap it really had to be blowing to do that.Roundup doesn't vaporize and move like Dicamba.Ive seen roundup kill corn across a road plus another 100' of the corn that was not RR corn.So that drifted 160' and killed the corn dead.


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## Northeast PA hay and beef (Jan 29, 2017)

Looks like drift to me. Id dig up some of the plants including roots and send to lab for testing. There is no reason for that section of field to be dead and the other section with more trees between fields be fine, other than drift. The first cutting looks established there would be some growth even with it being dry.


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## endrow (Dec 15, 2011)

Call a reputable herbicide dealer in your area there are hotlines I am told to report dicamba drift and people designated to investigate ..


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## swmnhay (Jun 13, 2008)

Like someone said look at the trees.I bet they are brown on the windward side.Take pictures and document.


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## luke strawwalker (Jul 31, 2014)

What's the dividing line between the dead part and the "okay" part look like?? If it's a crisp well-defined line, someone may have misapplied Roundup or something and killed it. Drift would produce a much "fuzzier" line with it getting smaller/sicker and dying out over at least a few feet, and the farther from the neighbor's field the "fuzzier" the dividing line would be.

I remember years ago when they first approved Clomazone (Command) for use on cotton... At all the meetings they stressed over and over how it volatized and drifted (nothing as bad as dicamba (Banvel) but bad enough). They repeated that it was NOT to be sprayed in winds over 10 mph.

Well, sure enough, early March I'm out planting grain sorghum on my side of the fence, neighbor is running balls to the wall spraying and disking in preplant herbicide on his cotton ground. I didn't give it much thought, and I was running full out trying to get my sorghum in ahead of the rain predicted for the overnight/next day, and of course he was trying to get his preplant out. The wind kept getting stronger all day ahead of a front and was blowing a good 20 mph by the time I was up against the fence and he was working north of the fence (his rows were E/W mine were N/S). I thought he was kinda crazy still spraying in that kind of wind even though he was disking it in right behind it, because half of the spray had to be drifting out of the path of the disk onto already disked ground south of him as he was working toward the north end of the farm.

Anyway, about 2 weeks later I'm out doing the first cultivation job on the sorghum, which is about 3 inches tall, with the Lilliston rolling cultivator. I started on the west side of the field working east toward the fence, in about a 13 acre field that runs up to the neighbor's place. The further across the field I get the sicker that sorghum looks, and by the time I'm about halfway across it goes from healthy green to sickly green to yellow-green to yellow to turning yellowish-brown. I'm perplexed as I keep working across the field as to WHAT IN THE WORLD could be making this sorghum SO sick-- I knew it wasn't carryover from anything I'd applied... then as I get within the last 10 rounds or so of the fenceline, I start seeing sorghum plants BLEACHED WHITE, which is a tell-tale sign of clomazone drift... Once I realized what it was, I started looking for the signs, and sure enough, the trees in the fenceline along the north end of my field adjacent to the neighbors, and the trees and brush in the fenceline between our places, had huge white spots bleached into the tree canopies where the clomazone drifted through and attacked the trees... When I finished the field and was driving the tractor back to the house, I noticed bleached spots in the trees on the OTHER SIDE OF THE HIGHWAY a half-mile from the neighbor's field!

Now, I COULD have called TDA and landed him in a sh!t storm of hot water, because he KNEW the winds were WELL over 10 mph when he was spraying that crap ahead of that front the day I planted... BUT, that wouldn't do ME a bit of good-- the damage was done and what would happen, at BEST, is maybe some egghead from TDA or the extension service would come out, take some pics, maybe do an assessment, and then have me maybe submit a ton of paperwork and figure the yield damage at harvest, and MAYBE I'd get some pittance out of it... BUT I'd still have to operate right next door to the guy and while "good fences make good neighbors" it's best to have peace and amiable relations with the neighbors if possible... so I didn't call TDA and report him... Like I said it would have just landed him in hot water, made an enemy, and gotten me NOTHING in the end, at best some little dab of money for lost yield that would have been probably not over 10% of the ACTUAL losses, IF THAT (I've seen this sort of nonsense before, like the year we had fungus hit the sorghum crop and we got a $75 check from the insurance when all was said and done for the losses).

SO, it might be, and might be worth looking into. Be careful though, because what it gets you in the end might not be "worth the trouble" if you know what I mean... I knew it and the NEIGHBOR knew it and he probably had held his breath on some of that stuff, and maybe had some sleepless nights wondering when the phone would ring or a state vehicle pull into the yard, but he never did anything that STUPID again...

From the pictures you posted that certainly LOOKS like it was toasted with a burndown-- Roundup or Gramoxone... even drift wouldn't knock stuff out that COMPLETELY IMHO... and dicamba doesn't really hit grass that hard-- it'd nuke your legumes, sure, but the grass should mostly shake it off. Did you have any spraying done (by your co-op or hire someone) and could you have possibly had some issue with a misapplication or carryover or contamination of the spray equipment?? Seen that happen too with improperly cleaned equipment or someone mixing up the wrong stuff...

Later! OL J R


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