Proposed Dicamba Regulations: What Georgia Cotton Growers Need to Know

In this special episode, Dr. Stanley Culpepper breaks down the proposed regulatory changes with respect to dicamba that every cotton grower needs to understand before the September 6th comment deadline.

Dr. Culpepper first highlights Georgia's exceptional track record in pesticide stewardship, with over 19,000 training participants and multiple EPA visits to understand how Georgia farmers have successfully minimized off-target movement. This context matters because the proposed changes don't acknowledge regional differences in application success rates.

While some existing requirements remain unchanged – including restricted use status, mandatory training, and application parameters – the new temperature-based volatility mitigation requirements represent a potentially devastating change for southern cotton producers. Under the proposed rules, applications would face escalating restrictions based on 48-hour temperature forecasts.

The real-world impact is sobering. Data analysis shows these temperature restrictions would eliminate approximately 37% of potential spray days if cotton is planted in May, force costly sequential applications on most remaining days, and effectively eliminate any opportunity to apply dicamba without significant additional costs. For farmers planting in June, available spray windows might shrink to just 13 days – utterly inadequate for managing large acreages.

What makes this particularly frustrating is that Georgia has not documented dicamba volatility issues since implementing VRAs. This underscores the critical importance of farmer feedback through the comment period ending September 6th.

Work with your county extension agent to submit effective comments that can influence these proposed regulations. The future of this critical weed management tool depends on making your voice heard now.

Transcript

Introduction to Special Dicamba Update

Speaker 1 0:08

Bringing you all things cotton production and pest management. This is the Talking Cotton Podcast with the University of Georgia Cotton Team. Let's get into the whys of putting on, throwing off and cutting out. Okay, so this is a special episode of the Talking Cotton Podcast Today. We're recording this just for everybody's information, on August 18th, because things are always subject to change, and so just wanted to go on and get that out there. But with me today is Dr Stanley Culpepper. Dr Culpepper, you doing good, I'm doing good, good, good, and just wanted to give a little update on kind of what's going on on the regulatory front as it pertains to Dicamba, and so I'll kind of hand it over to Dr Culpepper and I'll jump in and out as we talk about it.

Speaker 2 1:00

Absolutely and anything I don't explain clearly. You call me on it. Yeah, talk about it, absolutely, anything I don't explain clearly. Yeah, you call me on it. Yeah, so last month I think I think it was july 23rd the us epa uh released a lot of documents on the document docket for the potential re-registration of our in-crop dicamba products, talking about extendamax, tavium and ingenia and so what we thought we would do is kind of give you an update of what's in that information, and it's really important because we have the opportunity to provide comments through september 6th. So that's why we thought it was a good idea to kind of time to give you to update. We're not going to go through through everything. Like I said, there's 21 documents on the docket and there's actually one one of the one of the documents is over 500 pages, right, so we're just going to give you the highlight and then we're going to tell you what we're doing in extension, and maybe you'll want to cooperate with us to make your life a little bit easier. I tell you what.

Speaker 2 1:56

Before we get into the changes, though, let me highlight just a few things. That camp you know, our growers know, but just in case there's some other individuals listening. Uh, hopefully by now all of you know dicamba is a hot topic, yeah, and there are a lot of groups that do not like, yeah, uh, dicamba. So I just want to take a minute, if you will, and share again with our audience, who already knows because they're a part of it. But if you're listening in for other areas how, how well our growers have done with pesticide stewardship and it's not just about dicamba, it's about every product we apply. But just just a couple of tidbits to kind of set this, this up. If you're not from georgia, you know. First of all, for all of us that are applying these in crop dicamba products in the past, or if we get them in the future, they're restricted use pesticide, which means you have to have a daggone pesticide license and at least in the state of georgia, that is not easy, no, right it is complex.

Speaker 1 2:53

I didn't get my hours I guess it was it was. Whenever I started this, mine lapsed and I had to go back and retake the test.

Speaker 2 3:00

That was not fun, so so those of you that that question are our growers trained when they're applying this product? Go to the Georgia Department of Agriculture website and try to get you a pesticide license, especially a commercial pesticide license before, just so you know what our guys are doing. And then keep in mind, like Camp said, if you don't continually get credit for that license, you have to take it again. So you're continually being trained, hopefully every year, right? So that's the first thing. And then, if you're not from Georgia, just so you know, we offer, or provide what's called using pesticides wisely. That's a joint venture between the Department of Agriculture and the University of Georgia where we provide pesticide stewardship training. We do include Dicamba, but we focus on every single material dicamba, but we focus on every single material. And camp you may not have heard this number, but since inception now we have, uh, 19 000, over 19 000 attendees.

Georgia's Strong Pesticide Stewardship Record

Speaker 2 3:50

Yeah, now we certainly don't have 19 000 farmers that are individual, that's right what we've got those each farmer's been four or five or six times right, which drives the point home that they're getting. The information that we focus on is how to put a product on target and get it there Right. And the fascinating thing, through that training at first, a lot of the growers are like, oh, I got to be trained again. But what's happened now is our growers have taken the lead. They understand the value of these tools, they understand the importance of putting them on target and keeping them on target, and because of that we've been visited by the EPA at least five times in the last three years yeah.

Speaker 2 4:23

And I'm talking top of the EPA, trying to understand how our growers are being so successful.

Speaker 1 4:29

And not just dicamba. Not just dicamba, I mean, they came for Dairon a few years ago and things like that.

Speaker 2 4:35

Corpura Foss yeah.

Speaker 1 4:36

Corpura Foss, and you know it's funny, you bring up not just dicamba. But I got a call from a grower last week talking about he wanted to slow his sprayer down for defoliation Because he was like I'm going to get better results and I thought, hey, that's great, you know whatever. So I mean it's the same thing, right? Absolutely, it's affecting. These guys are getting the message and they're letting it affect every decision they make on the farm, not just a single product.

Speaker 2 5:05

Yeah, I'm heading to DC tomorrow and I make it clear every time I'm up there we have the best pesticide applicators in Georgia that have ever walked the ground in our state. Yeah, and that's because of their commitment. Hopefully we're helping a little bit, but it's because of their commitment. So I just wanted to throw that out there because you know. Hopefully you're not getting pounded, cam, but I'm certainly getting pounded for trying to get dicamba back for our growers. In fact, the AJC had something to say about it this morning.

Speaker 1 5:33

You sure?

Speaker 2 5:33

they did. That's just lovely, right, so we won't go into that. I'm a little bit frustrated. All those trainings that I just talked to you about, I shared with AJC For some, some reason, they weren't real interested in that. It wasn't real interested. So maybe we can do a piece and share it with ajc. You know, we we can't feed the world without our farmers. Our farmers can't survive without these plant protection tools. Gosh, we got to learn how to work together to do it right though yeah, right, man right they want.

Speaker 2 6:00

They want the products that are safe for them and the consumer. They want the. They're not going to overuse the product. It costs money, right, right. It just doesn't make sense other than let's work together to lift up the farmer, to give them the tools that they need to feed us and our national security, yeah, right. Okay, I'm going to quit being long-winded. All right, let's talk about what's changed. This is for you, the grower.

Speaker 2 6:26

We have trained our county agents as far as what's going on. A lot of our county agents will be providing comments. If you have input, put you want to have a voice. You can write your own comment and our agents will help you, or you can join in with our agents. We would love to have you join.

Speaker 2 6:38

So the bottom line is I'm going to kind of give you an overview. If something sticks, good or bad, reach out to your county. Yeah, because that's what the cooperative extension service is all about. It's not about that county agent. That's right, all right.

Speaker 2 6:49

So let's talk about what's not new. There's a lot that didn't change, and when I say not new, I'm talking about not new compared to 23, 24, right, kind of right, when that those products were getting removed first of all. Uh, it will remain a restricted use pesticide and it needs to, based on what's going on across the country, not necessarily in Georgia, but across the country. Mandatory training, that would be for you in Georgia. That'll be your using pesticides wisely training. Remember, that's an in-person training. I really wish some of these areas that struggle would do some in-person state trainings. I think it would make a difference. But that's required. The label will specifically again only be for cotton and soybeans. We know these formulations are the best formulations of dicamba out there. We know there are a lot of other uses for dicamba. We need to expand these products there, but not yet we got to survive this cotton. Yeah, yeah, maximum use rate on the literature it's's a half a pound active. For you guys, that's 22 ounces of Xtendimax, or your 12.8 of it, yeah, 12.8.

Speaker 1 7:52

And that's twice, that's two yeah.

Speaker 2 7:54

So that's a change. I'll highlight that in a minute. Okay, but that is the rate and you will be able to go twice. You can go pre-emergence or, for us, uh, we can make sequential post-emergence applications, so that that's good. Uh, unfortunately for you, no change here, but the required documentation. There's still 23 specific topics you haven't you have to address. That hasn't changed. But thanks to gda, department of ag and our uh manufacturer partners for trying to get you access to doing that more easy.

Speaker 2 8:27

Yeah, right that's important, right, but for that to continue, we wind speed during application uh, at boom height, remember, three to ten miles an hour. That did not change your boom gosh. I have screamed at y'all forever. 24 inches above the target for all product, yeah, but required on the dicamba for sure. Also, hasn hasn't sprayed. This is interesting. Now, the maximum sprayer speed driving through the field, the label allows you 15, but like Kemp said that farmer who had it figured out to slow down, you get it on target better. You get better pest management. So we want you to slow down, but the label allows that.

Speaker 2 9:01

We maintain the statement about do not apply sensitive crops. Plants are adjacent. You know, if you've been to upw, the first thing we say is identify the fields where we don't need to spray, dr diana. Well, we don't need to spray 24d or we don't need to spray paraquat right. Identify those areas where we shouldn't do that, unless to develop an alternative. Aerial applications are prohibited. That means drone applications are also prohibited. Don't be putting these things in either of those. So one thing that didn't change, but did change kind of interesting there. We have to still avoid temperature inversions, but if you remember, on the past labels we had certain times of the day you couldn't spray. That's actually going to be removed the times of day and then we're just going to work really aggressively to help you be able to identify those inversions yourself, because if you apply dicamba or any product and an aversion is occurring, we're in serious trouble. Yeah right, yeah, you can't apply these products when the soil is saturated. Uh, that will actually, for the first time, be defined very nicely on on the label. We also cannot apply these products and get used to it, because it's our future for all products if one inch of rainfall is expected over the next 48 hours.

Speaker 2 10:09

Now one thing the agents picked up on is where do I get the weather information from? Yeah, in the docket, the documents in the docket. They talk about noah or the national weather service for yes, so this might be one area some of our agents are commenting hey, is there a way that we can use more local data? Because in general, they get most of that information from those same sources. So that is one highlighted area that our agents brought up. They want to try to simplify that process for you, because you will have weather that you have to address, both rainfall and temperature. We'll get to the temperature in a minute.

New Requirements and Runoff Mitigation

Speaker 2 10:44

All right, let's talk about some new, new requirements. Most of these, in my opinion, are not bad, and then there's one really bad, and we'll spend most of the time talking about the bad one. Uh, camps already mentioned it you can now only make two applications of these products and crop. As a weed scientist, I'm gonna argue with you or suggest to you two applications is all we need for resistance management. Yeah, we've got to have the sound program. We still have to have the residuals and all that good stuff. I'm gonna scream at you about a lay by and and we know how that goes. But yeah, you scream. But I think that's a solid move. That also takes it down from a maximum of two pounds per year to one pound, and in the current environment, that's a positive. Yeah, right, that's a positive.

Speaker 2 11:28

All applications have to include a vra. Remember your volatility reduction adjuvant. That was required in the past. But you also have to include a dra. Now, most of you included them both anyway, so I don't think this is a bad problem. But but there were some applications depending on type mixture. In the past you didn't have to have a DRA. This time you got to have them both every single time you go. Don't think that's a big deal, think that's what everybody's doing.

Speaker 2 11:51

One significant change if you'll remember, when we chose the spray tip, we had to make sure it was approved on the manufacturer's website. Yeah, it at least looks like. Now and again I have to stress this is all proposed, so it can change, but what is proposed, they'll remove all that complexity and they'll essentially say coarse or coarser droplet. So that will simplify our life. But we, in extension, will strongly, strongly, strongly continue to promote you guys using ultra coarse droplets. Yeah, you know what you've been doing. You know it works. It provides the weed control that that we need. We're fine with that. So we're gonna, we're gonna stay on you on that. We need that ultra coarse droplet in our state to to maintain our low off target movement issue. All right.

Speaker 2 12:39

So one thing that's definitely new and uh, taylor and I have both been talking to you for years about esa, the endangered species act, and mitigations we're going to have to implement. So this will be our first large-scale implementation of the runoff mitigation requirements these products at least proposed. Now we will have to achieve three points of mitigation in a non-esa or non non-PULA. Remember PULA, pesticide Use Limitation Area. We learned that on BLT. We've trained you a little bit. We'll train you some more, but we'll have to get three points if that's not a pesticide use limitation area but we'll have to get six points of runoff if there is.

Speaker 2 13:17

Now this winter, when we did county meetings, over 600 of our farmers actually filled out my surveys, so that was really really cool. So I asked them what percent of your fields can you get three points for front off. After we explained it, 100% of our growers said 100% of our fields we get three points. So in your non-ESA counties we should be good to go. Can you get six points? All right, 90% of our growers said they can completely get six points. About 10 of our growers said some portion of their fields they can't get there. Now, the cool thing is, since that training, we've added more options for our growers. So we in extension will share that information and I'm confident, if not all, almost every single one of you will be able to help you get to six points. And again, we'll work on that this winter and doing our training. All right.

Speaker 2 14:01

Additional changes All right. So the downwind buffer in a non-ESA remember we talked about ESA Endangered Species Act requirement versus non-ESA is going to be 240 foot downwind. That did not change. All right, but what did change is we have more opportunities to reduce that downwind buffer. For example, if we have wind breaks that meet the criteria. We'll provide that to you later, but if meet the criteria we can reduce the buffer. If we use hooded sprayers, broadcast or finally got it on the label row middle yeah, hooded sprayers or a lay-by rig, collectively we can reduce that, that value of drift, by 50 to 75 percent. Yeah, we can also reduce the number, uh, the buffer number, if we use less trips across the field. Don't think that's going to work for us, but we can continue to include those managed areas and you'll remember, you've been trained on what fits the managed area and we can let the buffer run into that. The managed area section is clarified, where you can understand it better, and some additional items are available there. So overall, the number hasn't changed, but the options to reduce it have gotten better for us.

Temperature Restrictions and Volatility Mitigation

Speaker 2 15:14

All right, so that kind of summarizes everything, except for the problem that I'm struggling with. There is a new volatility mitigation requirement proposed, proposed, and this is something that you need to look at and I'm going to take a minute to try to explain it, but you need to look at it. And again, our agents have this as well, as this is provided by the US EPA in the docket. So, first thing, that's important in the pros label requirement is it's focused on volatility. You remember we talked about volatility a ton. I will tell you, at least today, neither the Georgia Department of Agriculture nor the University of Georgia have documented dicamba movement from volatility since key here since we started adding in your VRA Remember your VRA, or volatility reduction adjuvant, helps prevent the movement of that product from volatility.

Speaker 2 16:07

All right, so they've created a table or some guidelines and it's a little bit complicated, but basically it says for a 48-hour window. All right, that's important. So, camp, if you're spraying right now, you have to look at the weather today and tomorrow. You can't just look at today. You find a high temperature for that one 48 hour window and then you would go into the chart and determine what your requirement is. All right. Now let me be clear. The concept of basing volatility requirements on soil temperature this is air temperature is that it's much better than picking an arbitrary date or picking a stage of growth in which you shouldn't apply because of volatility. Yeah, that makes no scientific sense, right? So once you look at your air temperature again, you go to the table.

Speaker 2 17:04

All right, the table currently says if it's less than 75 degrees over the next 48 hours, you can do what you've done in the past. You would add your, your extendomax or your ingenium. Then you would add a 1x rate of vapor grip. I'm gonna call the 1x rate of vapor grip being 20 ounces or the 1x rate of centrist being 8 ounces. That's traditionally what you've done in the past. So at under 75 degrees, you can do what you did in the past. Any temperature above that is going to cost you money. Yeah, and that's. Oh. What about 100% of every ounce?

Speaker 1 17:35

That's the thing is that during a cotton season that ain't going to work.

Speaker 2 17:38

Yeah, I mean how many days are below 75 degrees? Yeah, so, we've actually done the data and we're we're providing it in our comments from donaldsonville and from tifton. But before I tell you the impact, let me go so. So, let's say it's between 75 and 85, maybe the first last week of april, yeah, week of may, right, all right. So if you're between 75 and 85, you can still make the application, but you have to double the vra, all right. This is going to cost you about another two dollars per acre, and if you make two applications, that would be about four dollars per acre for the year. Okay, this is where it hurts us. Uh, significantly, between 85 and 95, all right, and I'll give you some numbers of how many this impacts in a minute.

Speaker 2 18:19

But 85 to 95, you have to do two things. First thing you have to do is you have to double the VRA, all right. Then you have to pick between two additional mitigation options. Number one you can choose or select a 40% reduction in the area treated, so you can only spray 60% of your field. Now, in general, that sounds insane. When you have a pigweed that can grow two inches per day, right, that doesn't make sense. But hey, if you're doing a hooded sprayer or you've got some of this new see and spray technology. Maybe that'll be there. Might be a fit, yeah, but it's going to be a small number of our acreage, yeah, right. Plus, I want you putting a residual out, and I don't know how you're going to put the residual out if you're only treating 60% of the field. Yeah, yeah, so all right, but option two is probably the one that's going to be more palatable. Maybe For these products, you will not, definitely know. I need a residual and I certainly can't kill every weed in our fields with just dicamba yeah I

Speaker 2 19:26

mean we can go no grasses spot, or we can go on and on and on, right, so you would have to make sequential applications, right? So now I just I doubled your vra cost. Now I'm doubling your application cost from post one and post two to now post one a, post one, b. Yeah, post two, a and b, right. So that that is a big deal. And if you were to treat a million acres, right, that's going to be about a 9.1 million dollar cost to our growth. Yeah, keep it in mind we haven't, at least so far, documented a volatility issue. Yeah, so that's concerning. And then in some parts of our state, this is a kicker if it's 95 degrees or higher, you cannot apply these products within 48 hours within that again so it's that day and the day after yep, yep.

Speaker 2 20:14

so if it's so, it's Monday today, if it's Tuesday afternoon, they are calling for 95. We cannot spray today, we look again tomorrow and if they're calling for over 95, in any of that next window we can't spray them.

Speaker 1 20:28

Well, but if it's 95, so let's say they're calling for 95 tomorrow afternoon, that means you can't spray today, tomorrow or Wednesday Is that right.

Speaker 2 20:36

You can't spray today or tomorrow based on that. But what I would encourage you to do is get up tomorrow morning and look. And if they changed it and they dropped it to 93, then you could go, but more likely it's 96 and you can't go Now. It doesn't impact the day following. So if tomorrow afternoon is 95, but Wednesday is 85, we're okay, go on wednesday as long as thursday's not 95.

Speaker 1 20:59

Yeah, but you've identified how complicated. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 21:01

Yeah, this is complicated, but you have to look in that 48 hour window and if any time in that 48 hour window is expected to be over 95 degrees, you cannot spray this minute or until it no longer recommends or suggests it's going to be there. Yeah, yeah, man, yeah. So so that would be that would be news to us. So let me give you an example. It no longer recommends or suggests it's going to be there. Yeah, yep, man, yeah so. So that would be that would be news to us. So let me give you an example. I'll give you just two examples. We're pulling multiple years. This is just one year 2024 in Donaldsonville. The number of days, restrictions, prohibit applications, and, and we're using our typical application window. But the number of days where you can't apply the products 37 on average of your window across 23, 24 and 25. Yeah, so you lose a third of your days. Yeah, so what happens right now? You're forced to face larger weeds. Yeah, probably more wind, less favorable environment yeah, more off target movement.

Speaker 1 21:52

Well, and then this tank mix thing becomes a big deal right you take a third of your days away. It's like all right, I got to put more stuff in the tank so I can cover all these acres. Good point, but if it's 93, that makes one thing you don't have that option.

Speaker 2 22:06

That's right. So it's really, really complicated. So in the same year the number of days restrictions required both the increase in input costs for the VRA and the sequential applications right Between 85 and 95. 59% of the time so 37% of the time I can't spray at all. 59% of the time I can't do tank mixtures I got to double my VRA. The number of days where I simply only have to do the VRA increase the cost of the VRA $2, is 4%. But the important number is the number of days where farmers could apply in-crop dicamba without added cost. This is important On days that it's not raining, right.

Speaker 1 22:44

Yeah right, the low temperatures are usually because it's raining. Yeah, that's right.

Speaker 2 22:47

All right. If you consider both of those things, the number is zero. Yeah, the number is zero.

Speaker 1 23:02

So I went in my office I had about five seconds in my office last week and I started piddling with some of this and like that. None of that even takes into account the wind speed. That's right either, and so it's like that. That adds a whole nother level of complexity. But I mean, I was looking in camilla and tifton and if you look in a hot year, which would be 2022, you start looking at if you planted cotton on june 1st which we had to do a lot this year because our winded you know all the rain and stuff like that kind of pushed us late you could only spray between June 1st and August 1st. Based on what we recommend in terms of coming in two weeks after you plant and stuff like that, you could only spray like 13 days, and so it's just like that's not if you're farming a thousand acres of cotton.

Speaker 2 23:38

That's not gonna work, that's all that's a good point, because in those values I just gave you, I'm considering may, june, and that's right, and july, right. So you're absolutely right if you're, if you're, that window is more complicated as you go. So what? What we're trying to develop, and this is complicated right because even though I'm saying there's no volatility here, there are other parts of the country that have clearly documented Right. So this is a federal label. Yeah, it is not a Georgia label. Everybody wants a Georgia label. Maybe we'll get there one day, but right now we don't have the opportunity. So the label has to be written that can protect everybody. So there will have to be this volatility requirement mitigation table.

Speaker 2 24:21

We are going to propose some additional options. Keep it in mind. You know we're trying to consider what's happening here, we're trying to consider the science, we're trying to consider what what's happening elsewhere to try to mitigate the impact on our growers. We're not going to remove it. There's no way in the short term we're not going to remove it. But we're also going to share in our comments some ideas of some different science we can do to try to understand why we're not having problems, at least this year. Hopefully I don't hex us for next year, but why we're not having problems. But other areas are right. Is it a possibility? Land terrain or inversions are a part of that right. So I think there's some things that we can do and then maybe, in the future, get better science to be more, more descriptive, but that that is the area that I will focus most of my effort on is to try to mitigate the cost of impact on our growers, to meet these tables, and obviously I want to move the temperature maximum temperature up to 100 degrees, because, I look at it this way, they've been spraying in donaldsonville since 2017, without a vra the first couple of times and then with a vra, and things are going, yeah, extremely well. Right again, that's not good enough to get you a label. I'm sorry that's the case, but it is.

Speaker 2 25:31

Um, it is something that we we will try to work with our agency, and I'll finish up by saying look, the EPA is really in a unique place right now. I'm 100% confident. The EPA wants input from our farmers. That's why they've been to Georgia at least five times. That's why they're begging for input from you. Your input is far more impactful than mine.

Speaker 2 25:53

I know this is a complicated process, but if you can work with the agents and get some comments in. I don't want you to spend two days trying to find the information on the docket, because it probably would take you that long, but the agents can help you do that and we can get some information. If you got ideas, you got thoughts, you got theories. Man, they respect the opinion of the farmer and and as do we, obviously, and that that's information we need to help facilitate, get to get to our regulatory partners, because the bottom line is we need tools in the toolbox, we need them to be safe for us, we need them to be safe for the consumer and we need them to be safe for the environment. So what that means is we all got to work together, right? That that's the key here and that's what we're trying to facilitate well, and the label, you know it.

Speaker 1 26:33

Talking about all that, I mean, there's people out there that are probably just like, oh, we just need to get a label, like it doesn't matter what's in there, and the label has got to be usable. That's right. I mean, that's just that's how. And right now, that temperature table, the volatility mitigation table with temperature and all, really prohibits the use on a lot of acres in in our state, in our situation. So it's uh, you know it's got to be usable and that's why the, the comments are so important and the agents know the most effective way to put those together. Right, there's, there's certain ways that you need to put some of that together and just saying, oh, I loved iCAM, but I need it on my farm. It's no good, that's not going to do any good at all you know.

Speaker 1 27:20

So you know, getting with those agents and putting stuff together that's going to be effective and that's going to get their attention right, because it was the Dairon stuff right. I mean, the agents did great with all that. And then EPA called you and was like what did you do?

Speaker 2 27:38

Well, yeah, so this is phenomenal. I forget the exact number, but I think it was over 50 comments came from our agents slash, our agents and our growers collectively, and the result of that was several days of EPA, I think six or seven different EPA individuals traveling across our state meeting with our farmers Because of the commitment our farmers and agents made to share with them. They wanted to take the opportunity to learn. So that's one of the most important areas we have to work. We, as an extension, have to serve as a conduit to take the grower, take their information and provide it to the individuals that are regulating us. Yeah, and this is an opportunity for us to do this. We know how busy you are. The deadline is September. We told our agents September 5th, but the deadline is September 6th because it's a challenge to even submit a comment, right?

Speaker 1 28:31

It is not simple.

Speaker 2 28:32

If you don't do that every day, right, so we want our agents to get it in early. But again, again, if this is something that's important to you and look if, if you're in the state and you're having problems, you need to share that as well yeah, this, this isn't this is we want to work together, we want to be a one agricultural family.

Speaker 2 28:50

We need these tools. If there are ways to improve the tool and you're you're you're struggling with the tool or you're having issues with the tools, hey we need to hear it. Let's work together and let's address it. That's what the science is all about.

Speaker 1 29:01

Yep, that's right. So September 6th deadline to submit comments and work closely with your county agent if you got questions and anything else.

Speaker 2 29:11

Nope man, Thank you for sharing the information with our grower.

Importance of Farmer Input by September 6

Speaker 1 29:14

Yep, that sounds good. So if there's any questions about this or anything else, reach out to your county agent, thank you. Thank you for listening to this episode of Talking Cotton with the UGA Cotton Team. If you have any questions about anything we talked about today, or if there's anything you'd like for us to talk about in the future, please contact your local UGA County Extension agent and, as always, you can find us on all major podcast platforms. Be sure to like, share with your friends and subscribe so you can stay up to date.