Pesticide application records

The Department of Environment and Climate Change (DECC) has introduced a new Regulation called the Pesticides Amendment (Records) Regulation 2001.The Regulation commenced on 31 July 2002 and requires all people who use pesticides for commercial or occupational purposes to make a record of their pesticide use.

The Records Regulation and notes on what is required can be found at the DECC website:

• Regulation for keeping records of pesticide use

NSW DPI has prepared a form that can be used to capture the information required by the Records Regulation. By clicking on the link, you can view, download and print off a copy of the form.

These record keeping forms are also available in A4 sized books. These books contain 50 self-carboning forms, and can be obtained from Murrumbidgee College of Agriculture, Yanco.

Regulatory compliance is only one reason for keeping accurate, comprehensive and up-to-date records. Records are required for QA (quality assurance) schemes that guarantee market access. Records are also helpful for managing other aspects of your crop or farm.

The application record form created by NSW DPI allows applicators to capture more information than required by the Records Regulation. It is a multi-purpose form that can be used to record a variety of applications, to both plants and animals. (Remember, in NSW, external applications to control external parasites of animals, eg lice on sheep or ticks on cattle, are classified as pesticides, not stock medicines.)

To assist applicators to fill in the form, notes are included below. These notes indicate the information that is required by the Records Regulation, and the information that is useful for QA and general management purposes. The notes also give advice on how to fill in the form.