In 2017, dicamba-resistant (DR) soybean was commercially available to farmers in the United States. In August and September of 2017, a survey of 312 farmers from 60 Nebraska soybean-producing counties was conducted during extension field days or online. The objective of this survey was to understand farmers’ adoption and perceptions regarding DR soybean technology in Nebraska. The survey contained 16 questions and was divided in three parts: (1) demographics, (2) dicamba application in DR soybean, and (3) dicamba off-target injury to sensitive soybean cultivars. According to the results, 20% of soybean hectares represented by the survey were planted to DR soybean in 2017, and this number would probably double in 2018. Sixty-five percent of survey respondents own a sprayer and apply their own herbicide programs. More than 90% of respondents who adopted DR soybean technology reported significant improvement in weed control. Nearly 60% of respondents used dicamba alone or glyphosate plus dicamba for POST weed control in DR soybean; the remaining 40% added an additional herbicide with an alternative site of action (SOA) to the POST application. All survey respondents used one of the approved dicamba formulations for application in DR soybean. Survey results indicated that late POST dicamba applications (after late June) were more likely to result in injury to non-DR soybean compared to early POST applications (e.g., May and early June) in 2017. According to respondents, off-target dicamba movement resulted both from applications in DR soybean and dicamba-based herbicides applied in corn. Although 51% of respondents noted dicamba injury on non-DR soybean, 7% of those who noted injury filed an official complaint with the Nebraska Department of Agriculture. Although DR soybean technology allowed farmers to achieve better weed control during 2017 than previous growing seasons, it is apparent that off-target movement and resistance management must be addressed to maintain the viability and effectiveness of the technology in the future.

The mixed ligand complexes of manganese(II), nickel(II), copper(II), zinc(II), and cadmium(II) involving aspartic acid and benzoic acid have been synthesized. The complexes were studied by various spectroscopic techniques such as infrared, electronic, X-ray diffraction, and magnetic measurements. The complexes were found to have octahedral geometry. The X-ray powder diffraction results show that the crystal systems of Mn(II)-Asp-Ben complex are hexagonal, and Ni(II)-Asp-Ben, Cu(II)-Asp-Ben, Zn(II)-Asp-Ben, and Cd(II)-Asp-Ben complexes are found to be triclinic. The value of unit-cell parameters and XRD data for the five mixed ligand complexes are reported.

Co(II) complexes with benzoic acid and ternary complexes with ligands benzoic acid and histidine/aspartic acid have been synthesized and characterized using various spectroscopic methods. On the basis of infrared, UV-visible spectra, and magnetic data the complexes were found to be having octahedral polymeric geometry. X-ray powder diffraction results show that the crystal systems of Co(II)-Ben and Co(II)-Ben-Hist complexes are triclinic with lattice constants a=15.58 Å, b=11.92 Å, c=4.33 Å, α=96.08°, β=104.68°, γ=88.46°, and V=774.15 Å3 and a=18.88 Å, b=17.01 Å, c=15.13 Å, α=93.15°, β=89.41°, γ=100.71°, and V=4768.75 Å3, respectively. The Co(II)-Ben-Asp complex is orthorhombic with lattice constants a=21.57 Å, b=15.06 Å, c=11.40 Å. α=β=γ=90°, and V=3703.38 Å3.

The quantitative relationship between the urinary excretion of benzoic acid (BA)and the uptake of 3-phenylpropionic (PPA) and cyclohexanecarboxylic (CHCA) acids was assessed.PPA and CHCA are produced in the rumen by microbial fermentation of lignocellulosic feeds and metabolized, after absorption, to BA which is excreted in the urine mainly as its glycine conjugate hippuric acid (HA). Four sheep nourished by intragastric infusions of all nutrients weregiven continuous ruminal infusions of PPA (8,16 or 24 mmol/d) either alone or with CHCA (8 or 16 mmol/d) in a factorial experiment. The treatments were allocated to ten consecutive 6 d periods, with a control being repeated at periods 1, 5 and 10. PPA and CHCA ruminal absorption rates, estimated using the liquid-phase marker Cr-EDTA, were 0·78 (SD 0·29)/h and 0·88 (SD 0·28)/h respectively. For the control, HA excretion was only 0·22 (SD 0·33) mmol/d and free BA was absent. For the other treatments, both HA and free BA were present and HA accounted for 0·85 (SD 0·05) of total BA. The urinary excretion of total BA showed a significant linear correlation (r = 0·997, P<0·001) with the amounts of PPA and CHCA infused. The urinary recovery of infused PPA and CHCA as total BA was 0·79 (SE 0·01). Faecal excretion of BA and its precursors was negligible. Results of this study show that urinary total BA is a potential estimator of the absorption of PPA + CHCA produced in the rumen