The men and women who drive cotton and soybean pesticide spraying equipment are going to have to attend more training if they intend to use certain products in 2018, states Rod Gurganus, Agricultural Extension AGent in Beaufort County.

“Even if you attended a training session last year, you have to come again, and this time the target audience is the person who will be in the seat of the sprayer, not just a representative from the farm,” Gurganus wrote.

Labels for Engenia, FeXapan, and XtendiMax were recently revised. Those products are now classified as Federal Restricted Use Pesticides. They can only be sold by licensed pesticide d ealers and purchased only by licensed/certified (commercial and private) applicators.

Product labels also state the following:

“Prior to applying this product postemergence in-crop on dicamba-tolerant cotton or dicamba-tolerant soybeans for the 2018 growing season, and prior to each growing season thereafter, all dicamba applicator(s) including commercial applicators, private applicators, and non-certified applicators working under their direct supervision must complete dicamba or auxin-specific training. Training must be completed annually before each growing season.”

North Carolina will again have Special Local Need (SLN) labels for the dicamba products and also for Enlist One and Enlist Duo. Those SLN labels will reinforce the mandatory training before application of all products mentioned above. That training includes the person driving the sprayer. Individuals completing the training will be issued a certificate which must be presented to the dealer before purchasing those products.

Persons completing the training in 2017 are required to take training again in 2018. Company representatives will likely also offer stewardship training, but that training will not substitute for the training provided by the state.

Extension agents in Beaufort, Hyde, Washington, and Tyrrell Counties will host two of these trainings in our area this year:

January 25, 9:30 a.m. to noon, as a part of the Aurora Road Show at Granny Branch Farms.

February 1, 10:30 a.m. to noon (after the Blackland Cotton Meeting) at the Ponzer Community Building.

Contact Rod Gurganus, (252-946-0111, rod_gurganus@ncsu.edu), if you have questions about this training.