Farmers, other commercial users of pesticides and members of the community can still send in comments until 30 March. EPA Director-General Lisa Corbyn said the comments received so far have raised questions on the form of pesticide records, on whether they are needed for each paddock and about spot spraying by hand. There is no particular form proposed for keeping records of pesticide use.
People can use their current record sheets and simply include any additional details as needed.
Records are not proposed for each paddock, but rather for each application of spray. For example, a record could detail that the owner of a particular property sprayed thistles in pastures with a boom spray, starting at the gate to paddock A and finishing at the S-W corner of paddock B, between 9am and 2pm on a certain date. Other details would be the name of the product, the application rate, the amount applied, the weather conditions and information on possible affected areas, like the proximity of a neighbour's fruit orchard. Where spot-spraying of pastures was done with hand held equipment, no records would be needed, even where the hand spray is attached to a vehicle mounted spray rig. But records would be needed where pasture was sprayed with vehicle-mounted, powered spray equipment that was not hand held.