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Missouri’s largest peach producer has filed a lawsuit against Monsanto Co., alleging that the biotech company bears responsibility for illegal herbicide use suspected of causing widespread crop damage in southeast Missouri and neighboring states.

The suit filed Nov. 23 on behalf of Bill Bader, who operates Bader Farms near Campbell, Mo., seeks compensation for extensive damage to the farm’s peach trees suffered over the last two years — an interval which coincides with Monsanto’s release of crop varieties resistant to the herbicide dicamba.

Despite the Creve Coeur-based company’s rollout of dicamba-resistant Xtend crops in 2015, the corresponding herbicide was not approved for use until last month. Its absence meant that some farmers are suspected of using highly volatile, unauthorized forms of dicamba, prone to vaporizing and drifting to surrounding areas where nonresistant crops can be harmed.

The case was filed in Circuit Court of Dunklin County, an area of southeast Missouri’s Bootheel region where alleged dicamba damage has been especially pronounced. Many soybean farmers in the area have reported diminished yields due to suspected drift, and Bader thinks the same has happened to peaches and other crops around his farm.