Pay $38.9M in 2016 for Tyson chairman
John Tyson, chairman of Tyson Foods, earned $38.9 million in 2016, the Springdale food processor said in its annual proxy statement.
It was the highest compensation for an executive with an Arkansas public company since 2007 when Scott Ford with Alltel Corp. earned more than $193 million.
More than $29 million of Tyson's pay was from the exercise of stock options.
Other Tyson executives and their income were Donnie King, $23.6 million; Noel White, $17.3 million; Donnie Smith, $16.6 million; Dennis Leatherby, $12.5 million; and Tom Hayes, $3.7 million.
Smith has announced that he will leave as chief executive officer on Dec. 31, and Hayes will replace him.
Tyson Foods' annual meeting will be Feb. 9 at the Holiday Inn Northwest Arkansas Convention Center in Springdale.
-- David Smith
EPA registers new dicamba herbicide
The Environmental Protection Agency has registered a new herbicide from BASF for use in soybeans and cotton that are tolerant of dicamba.
The new herbicide, called Engenia, is said by BASF to be less volatile and less prone to drift than other dicamba herbicides on the market.
Dicamba-tolerant cotton and soybeans have been planted the past two years even though a dicamba-based herbicide had yet to be approved by the EPA for use on crops after plants emerge. Weed scientists with the University of Arkansas System's Agriculture Division have studied Engenia and agreed it is less volatile.
Some farmers this year illegally sprayed older formulations of dicamba across their dicamba-tolerant crops to kill weeds that have grown resistant to many herbicides on the market. In some cases, the chemical drifted and damaged nearby crops that were not dicamba-tolerant.
Under new rules proposed by the Arkansas Plant Board, Engenia would be allowed in Arkansas for in-crop use if there's a quarter-mile downwind buffer and 100-foot buffer in all other directions.
-- Stephen Steed
Index up; for week, 9 stocks rise, 9 fall
The Arkansas Index, a price-weighted index that tracks the largest public companies based in the state, rose 1.18 to 365.43 Friday.
Eleven stocks rose, and one was unchanged.
Windstream gained 4.9 percent. America's Car-Mart rose 1.7 percent, and P.A.M. Transportation gained 1.5 percent. Murphy USA fell 1.7 percent.
For the week, nine stocks declined and nine advanced.
Dillard's fell 3.3 percent for the week. Communications Sales & Leasing gained 4.1 percent for the week.
The index was developed by Bloomberg News and the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette with a base value of 100 as of Dec. 30, 1997.
Business on 12/24/2016