Farmers will be able to continue using existing stocks of three vacated dicamba herbicides this year after the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against a petition to immediately halt their use.

The court’s ruling will allow farmers to use Engenia, FeXapan and XtendiMax dicamba herbicides on soybeans and cotton until July 31 under the terms of their previous registrations. The plantiffs in the case argued the court ruling ordering the herbicide registrations to be vacated should have been effective immediately.

In a separate ruling, the court denied a motion by BASF to stay and recall its June 3 mandate vacating the three dicamba registrations. 

BASF asked the judges to re­consider their decision, saying­­ the company didn’t know its Engenia herbicide was at stake in the case and therefore didn’t have sufficient opportunity to de­­fend it in court.

Glyphosate settlement

Meanwhile, Bayer last week an­­nounced multi-billion dollar settlement agreements to end lawsuits involving its glyphosate and dicamba herbicides.

The company said it will make payments between $8.8 billion and $9.6 billion to “resolve current and address potential future Roundup litigation.” The company says the settlement will bring closure to about 75% of current Roundup litigation. 

Bayer also said it will pay up to $400 million to resolve lawsuits over alleged crop injury from dicamba drift from 2015 through 2020.

“We are settling these cases solely to enable us to move forward and focus on the needs of our customers,” said Bayer CEO Werner Baumann. “We stand strongly behind our XtendiMax herbicides with vapor grip technology and continue to enhance our training and education efforts to help ensure growers use our products successfully.”