Whip cracked on chemical records

THE Department of Economic Development, Jobs, Transport and Resources (DEDJTR) is taking stronger enforcement action on individuals found not complying with record keeping requirements.
Recently, the former Department of Environment and Primary Industries (DEPI) issued five infringement notices on chemical users for failing to keep the required records of agricultural chemical use.
Keeping agricultural chemical use records is not only a legal requirement in Victoria, it is also best practice for growers.
Good record keeping provides useful information that can assist users with their business, allows users to keep track of chemical use and can demonstrate that a duty of care was taken when applying chemicals, which also provides a good defence if facing accusations of misuse (e.g. spray drift of chemicals onto neighbouring crops or houses).
In addition, with pesticide resistance management strategies of increasing importance to growers, good record keeping also makes rotating through different modes of action easier.
The main issues found related to recording wind speed and direction, use of full product trade name and application rate.
Some growers only recorded incomplete trade names, e.g. copper, which does contain sufficient information to allow the individual product used to be identified.
Other growers were found recording the quantity of chemical applied, but not the application rate, which should be recorded as per the label e.g. 100ml/100L.
It is compulsory to keep records within 48 hours of using an agricultural chemical product, and retain them for two years from the date of use.