You risk contaminating your harvested
grains and oilseeds with pesticide residue from treated seed when you use the same
wagons, trucks and augers to handle your harvested grains and oilseeds as your
bulk seed deliveries in the spring.
Elevators
do not tolerate any contamination of harvested grains or oilseeds. It only takes a small amount of leftover
treated seed or its residue to contaminate your shipment load.
What
Are Your Risks?
· Your
load will be rejected.
· You
could contaminate additional grain in storage.
· You
could end up paying for any clean up or loss of business caused by the
contamination.
Take Steps to Prevent Contamination
Use
the checklist (on the back of this page) developed cooperatively by the Ontario
Agri Business Association, the Grain Farmers of Ontario, and the Canadian Seed
Trade Association to help you prevent contamination or your load. The checklist will assist you in identifying
where contamination might occur and gives you a standard procedure to prevent
it.
1. Equipment. Use wagons with straight sides and bottoms
so you can clean them easily. Consider
buying separate equipment for handling treated seed, and separate equipment for
handling harvested seed.
2. Bulk seed loading. Label equipment that you use for handling
treated seed. Label the equipment with a
tag or sign that you can removed once the equipment has been thoroughly
cleaned.
3. Cleanout of Wagons and Trucks. Establish and follow steps to properly clean
out wagons and trucks. Write down a
clean out procedure that your farm workers can follow. Train them on the proper steps for clean
out.
4. Cleanout of Augers. Remove wagon mounted augers after planting
season and clean the auger with an approved cleaner from your equipment
dealer. Dedicate an auger to only
handling treated seed.
5. Documentation.
Record when the equipment was cleaned and who cleaned the equipment.
6. Third Party Shipper. You are responsible to make sure the grain is
free from contamination even if you use a third party shipper.