Dicamba on XtendFlex soybeans and cotton: labels, state rules and crop pests

XtendFlex soybeans and dicamba: what the 2026 registration allows

Before you pick a herbicide for a soybean field, check two things: the seed trait of that field and the exact product you plan to spray. Then open EPA's current decision on over-the-top dicamba and read it against that product's label.

XtendFlex soybeans are the first triple-stacked soybean trait, with tolerance to glyphosate, glufosinate and dicamba herbicides. The trait is built on Roundup Ready 2 Xtend. The 2026 registrations cover postemergence application in dicamba-tolerant (DT) soybean and DT cotton.

EPA approved three dicamba herbicides for over-the-top use on cotton and soybeans for two growing seasons, 2026 and 2027. "Over-the-top" means spraying herbicide on cotton and soybean plants while they are actively growing in the field. The approval is for this one use; dicamba is already approved for other uses and is on the market. Do not carry an instruction from a burndown treatment over to an over-the-top treatment just because the active ingredient has the same name.

Which dicamba products are registered for 2026

The registered products are Engenia (EPA Reg. No. 7969-507), Stryax (264-1241) and Tavium (100-1753). The registrations were issued on February 6, 2026 and expire on February 6, 2028. Bayer CropScience LP is the registrant of Stryax.

When you compare a dealer's offer with a container or a saved label, compare the whole registration number, not just the product name.

XtendiMax is not among the three. If you plan to spray XtendiMax on soybeans, find out the seed trait and read the exact container first. A saved XtendiMax label from 2021 only tells you which older product and registration you are looking at; check the current registration and labeling before you rely on it. A federal court in Arizona overturned the 2020 over-the-top registrations of XtendiMax, Engenia and Tavium on February 6, 2024, because EPA had not followed the public notice-and-comment requirements of FIFRA. The 2026 over-the-top registrations are held by Engenia, Stryax and Tavium only.

Bayer states that with Stryax in the mix, farmers can target weeds before they emerge, with up to 14 days of residual activity.

Rate, number of applications and tank mix

EPA limits dicamba to a maximum of 1 pound per acre per year, down from 2 pounds. Only 2 applications are allowed per season, each limited to 0.5 pound per acre.

Every tank mix needs a volatility reduction agent and a drift reduction agent. EPA sets the volatility reduction agent at 40 ounces per acre, up from 20 ounces. The agents bind dicamba molecules so they stay where they are sprayed instead of evaporating. Ammonium sulfate products must not be mixed with dicamba, because they increase volatility. Dicamba can seriously damage soybeans that are not dicamba-tolerant and other sensitive crops and non-crop plants.

Before loading, write down every component of the mix: the herbicide, the adjuvants and anything else going into the tank. Keep the registrant's approved-mixture information and the label reference with that list. If anyone wants to change the formulation or an adjuvant, tell the applicator before loading. Read the ingredients of any water conditioner too, since ammonium sulfate products are not allowed in the mix.

If you are unsure whether a neighbor's soybeans are dicamba-tolerant, ask the field manager and keep the answer with the field boundary information.

Spray requirements: weather, droplets and buffers

Weather limits under EPA's decision:

• No spraying when the temperature will reach 95°F or higher.
• Between 85°F and 95°F, only 50% of the untreated acres can be sprayed, and the remaining acres wait 2 days.
• No spraying during temperature inversions, within 48 hours before expected rain, or when the soil is saturated.
• No spraying within 1 hour after sunrise or after 2 hours before sunset.
• Wind speed must be 3 to 10 mph: below 3 mph risks inversions, above 10 mph increases drift.

Use the weather definitions, forecast source and timing from the label of your product. A reading at the farmyard before you leave may not match the field conditions or the forecast the label asks for.

Application technique under the same decision: coarse or coarser droplets, spray release no higher than 2 feet above the ground or crop canopy, and ground application only; aerial application is banned.

Buffers and runoff: no spraying within 240 feet of the downwind edge of the field. The buffer can be reduced only with additional label-approved mitigation such as hooded sprayers or downwind windbreaks. Spraying is not allowed when dicamba-sensitive crops or plants are in downwind areas. Before you set the spray boundary, walk or map the downwind side with the field manager, find the sensitive plantings and keep the map. If a neighbor's trait or a sensitive planting is unknown, write that down and settle it before anyone says the field is ready to spray. Each treated field needs at least 3 mitigation points from EPA's conservation practices menu (vegetative buffer strips, cover crops, reduced tillage, contour farming, grassed waterways), and 6 points in areas with endangered species.

Dicamba license, certification and training

Over-the-top dicamba is a Restricted Use Pesticide: only certified applicators can use it, and all applicators need annual training. In Minnesota the training is label-mandated auxin/dicamba training offered by the registrants BASF, Bayer and Syngenta. Certification of applicators is covered on pesticide applicator license and state pesticide regulatory agencies.

Loaders, mixers, handlers and applicators wear personal protective equipment, and nobody re-enters a treated field for 24 hours.

For a license question, ask the certifying authority about the operator's credential, then check the annual training of the product you chose and confirm that the course covers the 2026 registration. Keep proof of the operator's general certification and of this year's product training where the person who assigns the work can find them.

Online dicamba training and dicamba certification online

Dicamba training online and dicamba online training mean the annual product training that all applicators need before spraying over-the-top dicamba; a certified applicator also holds the general certification, which is a different document. In Minnesota the training is the label-mandated auxin/dicamba training offered by the registrants BASF, Bayer and Syngenta. Keep the completion proof with the spray record.

The training can be taken online for each of the three over-the-top dicamba products: BASF offers a self-paced online module for Engenia, Syngenta one for Tavium Plus, and Bayer online training with self-paced and webinar options for Stryax. Any dicamba-specific training meets the annual requirement to apply Stryax, Engenia or Tavium, whichever of the three companies gives it. Whether a state accepts training taken in another state is that state's own rule: Ohio accepts out-of-state training from Indiana, West Virginia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Kentucky, but Indiana and Kentucky do not accept Ohio training. Ask your state agency before you enrol, and check the product's application requirements site within 7 days before you spray.

Dicamba preplant soybeans and Pioneer soybeans

The Engenia label allows preplant, at-planting, preemergence and postemergence application on dicamba-tolerant soybeans; other dicamba products have their own timings on their own labels. A Pioneer soybean variety is only a seed brand; the trait on the seed tag (dicamba-tolerant or not) decides whether dicamba may go over the top. Dicamba products have strict nozzle requirements, so John Deere spray tips for dicamba, like any other tips, have to be on the nozzle list of the label of your product.

Dicamba spray record keeping

EPA requires a record of every detail of each application, to prove compliance with the label. The labels add recordkeeping items beyond an ordinary spray log. In Minnesota the forecast high temperature must be recorded at the start of the application. Do not assume an ordinary spray-log row is complete: take the record list from the label of the product you use, mark which entries are collected before, during and after the application, and who supplies each one. Farm documents help you find the evidence but do not replace the required record. Keep the training proof and the finished record together under the product name. The general format of a spray record is in the spray log sheet. The label is a legal requirement under FIFRA, and violations bring civil fines or criminal prosecution.

If someone reports damage on a neighboring field, keep the place, the time, photographs, the affected plants and the actual application records. Follow the reporting route of the regulator and the registrant, and do not name the cause from how the plants look alone.

Minnesota rules for over-the-top dicamba

• Cutoff dates: no application south of Interstate 94 after June 12 and none north of it after June 30.
• Cutoff temperature: no application if the field air temperature is over 85°F at the time of application or if the National Weather Service forecast high for the nearest available location exceeds 85°F.
• Fifteen counties have Pesticide Use Limitation Areas for endangered species: Dodge, Fillmore, Freeborn, Jackson, Kittson, Lincoln, Mower, Norman, Pennington, Pipestone, Polk, Red Lake, Rock, Roseau and Steele. A field in a PULA needs 3 more points, 6 in total, of runoff and erosion mitigation. Whether a field is in a PULA is checked in EPA's Endangered Species Protection Bulletins.
• Buffer reduction options and managed areas that count toward the drift buffer are only those listed on the label; other options on the Mitigation Menu website are not eligible for these products. Ask the applicator to name the labeled option and the feature of the field that supports it.
• The product must not be applied if sensitive plants are planted on adjacent downwind fields.

Cotton pesticides: scouting, thresholds and weed control

Every cotton pesticide label is legally enforceable and defines who may use the product, where, how, how much and how often. Start by identifying the cause of the damage, since insecticides, herbicides and other products solve different problems, and choose the product for the problem you have confirmed. Check the crop stage and the current uses on the label. UC IPM groups cotton pest management into invertebrates, plant diseases, nematodes and weeds, and lists nonpesticide alternatives next to pesticides.

Cotton insect scouting and treatment thresholds

Threshold is the level of damage or insect numbers at which treatment is recommended; thresholds are general guidelines, expressed per 100 plant parts inspected. North Carolina's current thresholds:

• Thrips (cotyledon to 4 true leaves): an average of 2 immature thrips per plant, or 1 per plant for each true leaf. ThryvOn cotton is not treated for thrips.
• Bollworm in Bollgard II, TwinLink or WideStrike cotton: 25 total eggs on 100 leaves or fruiting structures, or 3 live second-stage bollworms (1/8 inch or longer) per 100 fruit.
• Tarnished plant bugs, pre-bloom: 8 per 100 sweeps; sampling starts when retention of young squares falls below 80 percent. Post-bloom: 2 to 3 adults plus nymphs per 5 row feet.
• Stink bugs: internal injury to quarter-sized bolls of 50, 30, 10, 10, 10, 20, 30 and 50 percent in weeks 1 to 8 of bloom.

Scout by a set method and take enough plants or plant parts; keep the method with the counts you used for the spray decision. As cotton begins to set squares, shift attention from thrips to fleahoppers and lygus, and look for missing or damaged squares; the two insects cause similar damage.

In Kansas, scouting for cotton fleahoppers and lygus bugs runs from the six-leaf stage until square production stops. Both insects cause squares to drop. If more than 10 to 20% of small squares are lost in pre-bloom cotton, plants are examined for fleahoppers. In the first three weeks of squaring the economic threshold is about 25 to 40 fleahoppers per 100 terminals with 10 to 15% blasted squares.

Beneficial insects and insecticide choice

Predators and parasites let growers delay, and occasionally eliminate, some insecticide applications. Learn to recognize ambush bugs, damsel bugs, big-eyed bugs, minute pirate bugs, lacewings, ladybird beetles and spiders, so you do not count these natural enemies as pests. In Kansas, where significant numbers of fleahoppers or lygus are found, the recommended insecticides are those with the least effect on beneficial arthropods, because beneficials suppress bollworms later in the season. Lygus bugs move into cotton after alfalfa cuttings; alfalfa is a significant reservoir for them. When you scout, look at neighboring alfalfa and ask when it was last cut.

Cotton aphids

Fewer than 25 aphids per leaf on mid-season cotton often cause no obvious damage. More than 50 aphids per leaf cause cupped, crinkled leaves, honeydew, sooty mold and, in extreme cases, limited defoliation, and can shrink bolls and increase square and boll shedding. After bolls open, honeydew can contaminate lint. Late in the season, judge aphids by what they may do to lint quality, not only by leaf damage. North Carolina treats at aphid rating 4 in opening cotton (15 percent open bolls or more), or rating 5 in pre-opening cotton when plants are stressed, and discourages treatment when predators, parasites or the aphid-killing fungus are present.

Cotton aphid has developed resistance to organophosphate, carbamate and pyrethroid insecticides. To manage it: spray only at economic thresholds, start with the most selective pesticides, and rotate modes of action, using no mode-of-action group more than twice per season.

Cotton weed control

Choosing a cotton herbicide depends on the weed species, soil type, cropping sequence and timing of cultural operations, and the infestation is recorded field by field, with species and density, so keep those records. Effective control combines cultural, mechanical, biological and chemical methods. Repeated crops and the same herbicide mode of action favor adapted weeds, so crop rotation and rotation of modes of action are part of the program.

Before you buy, name the complete product, formulation and current label, and keep the crop, target, application method and rate from that label together. Preemergence herbicides are incorporated 2 to 4 inches deep. Postemergence herbicides work best on weeds under 2 inches tall, and directed sprays to the base of the plant need cotton 6 to 8 inches tall.

Next step

See Minnesota's field-location rules or the state authority for your state.