As part of fall clean up and preparing for winter, farmers should follow best management practices for safely storing crop protection products.
The first step is to contact your retailer to find out if you can return any unopened products. If possible, your best choice is to return products rather than store them over the winter.
Proper storage facilities are required for any crop protection product, opened or not. These facilities should be secure, properly labeled with signage, and locked. Each province regulates crop protection and pesticide storage facilities. Visit the links below for more information on your local regulations. If you don’t have proper storage facilities, now is a good time to upgrade to ensure all crop protection, pesticide and chemicals stored on farms are safe and secure.
The next step to storing products is to determine if they can freeze or not. Some products (especially liquid products) may lose their efficacy if frozen, so be sure to read the product label or contact your retailer to be sure. Some liquid products can withstand freezing and come back into suspension after thawing, but be sure to double check with your local retailer or Corteva Agriscience™ Territory Manager for product information. Freezing shouldn’t be a problem for most dry products, but it’s not recommended to let a product freeze if it is packed in water soluble packaging.
Don’t forget sprayers and nozzles
Fall also means sprayers need to be properly winterized and stored too. Here are some great blogs and reminders from Sprayers 101 to help farmers properly clean and store spraying and applicator equipment: end of season spraying checklist, clean your nozzles, and remove and scrub your filters.