Greg Hay, chairman of the state Plant Board, resigned this week, citing his employer's concerns of a "conflict of interest."
Hay, of Conway, has been the board's chairman for about 13 months and a board member since 2015, representing the Arkansas Forestry Association, a private timber group for growers and harvesters.
Hay is an area manager for Nutrien Ag Solutions Inc., which sells seed, fertilizer and other products for farm use worldwide and provides farm-consulting services. It also has a timber division.
Hay declined comment Friday and referred questions to Nutrien's U.S. headquarters in Loveland, Colo.
Sherri Kuhlmann, a vice president and general counsel for Nutrien, said she couldn't comment because it was an "internal matter."
Hay sent his resignation letter Tuesday to his colleagues on the Plant Board. "The reason cited for this directive is 'conflict of interest,'" he wrote.
In a separate letter to Scott Bray, director of the Plant Board, and Max Braswell, executive vice president of the forestry group, Hay wrote, "Please accept my sincere apologies for any difficulties incurred by you both as a result of this action by my employer."
Hay has worked for Nutrien since 2012, when the company was known as Crop Production Services. It became Nutrien in 2018.
Under Plant Board bylaws, Terry Fuller, now vice chairman, will succeed Hay.
Fuller, who represents the Arkansas Seed Growers Association, has been a consistent critic of dicamba's use during the height of the growing season and has voted against any effort to extend spraying. The board's chair typically doesn't vote, except to break a tie.
"I really hate to see him go," Fuller said Friday. "He was a fair-minded board member and a fair-minded chairman, and conscientious about attending every meeting."
The board's next regularly scheduled meeting isn't until June.
Hay also was a critic of dicamba, a herbicide linked to damage to crops and vegetation across Arkansas and other states.
The Plant Board's efforts to restrict dicamba's usage in Arkansas have drawn the ire of farmers who want to use the herbicide, as well as of dicamba manufacturers, most notably Monsanto, now owned by Bayer. A lawsuit filed by Monsanto, and later backed by Bayer, is before the Arkansas Supreme Court.
Weed scientists in Arkansas and other states say dicamba can move off target, through physical drift or certain weather conditions, and damage crops and vegetation susceptible to the herbicide.
Business on 03/28/2020