Bob Griffin was rolling down Highway 49, past a carpet of farmland, when he saw the damage. Nothing in particular caught his eye, but the initial suspicion compelled him to pull onto a turn row splitting 100 acres of soybeans outside of Marvell, Ark.Something was off about the crop. He walked into R3 soybeans, already podded up, and saw cobra-headed damage on leaves tapering across the field. Griffin's consultant instinct was inescapable: telltale signs of dicamba drift.Where the grip of Palmer amaranth intensifies and expands each season, dicamba controversy is exploding beyond fields of Monsanto's Xtend soybeans in northeast Arkansas and the Missouri Bootheel. Yield loss is merely the bottom rung of concern. Growers fear repercussions could cut off access to desperately needed dicamba-related technology or poison the grain well by slamming marketers.
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