29 Mar Nine assurance schemes approved for rodenticide stewardship
Nine assurance schemes are now certified by the UK Rodenticide Stewardship Regime,
following addition of Quality British Turkey to the approved list. By showing their assurance
scheme certificate and personal I/D, farmers are eligible to purchase professional use
rodenticides with stewardship labels, being introduced on or after 1 April.
The stewardship-approved assurance schemes are:
- Red Tractor Farm Assurance (beef and lamb, dairy, combinable crops and sugar beet, fresh produce, pigs, poultry)
- Quality Meat Scotland (cattle and sheep, pigs)
- Farm Assured Welsh Livestock (beef and lamb)
- Scottish Quality Crops
- Northern Ireland Farm Quality Assurance Scheme (beef and lamb, cereals)
- British Egg Industry Council Code of Practice for Lion Eggs
- Duck Assurance Scheme (breeder replacement, breeder layers, Hatcheries, Table Birds, Free-Range Table Birds)
- Quality British Turkey
- Agricultural Industries Confederation (compound feeds, combinable crops and animal feeds)
This cornerstone of the stewardship regime applies via all suppliers including internet. An exact date when farmers are first asked for certification cannot be specified due to phasing out old stock and introduction of stewardship-authorised products. April to September is a transition period, during which old stock with pre-stewardship labels can still be purchased without certification for deployment strictly by the end of the use by period, while new stocks of stewardship-labelled products will require certification.
Two certain dates are 30 September 2016 when old stock sales will cease, and the next day
when proof of competence and I/D will be essential.
Guidelines are available for farmers at www.ahdb.org.uk/projects/RodentControlHub.aspx,
and for gamekeepers and pest controllers from their own professional bodies. A new
Stewardship Q&A document has also just been published by CRRU, which can be
downloaded HERE.