Environmental Farm Plan

[cakadu]

interestingly enough a co-worker just bought 10 litres of roundup to control weeds on his 120'x60' lot in St. Albert !!!!
I don't go through one quarter of that amount contolling grass and weeds around my two acre lawn !!!

[cakadu]

What is even more interesting is that same co-worker of yours emrald has to take absolutely NO training in terms of safety when applying it, application rates etc.

In many instances, if a little will do the job, then a whole lot more will do it even better.

[dalek]

Cowman I'm surprised you're still allowed to have a gravity fed diesel tank, they've been out here for several years. Technically we're supposed to have either a double-walled tank or the tank inside a cement vat capable of holding the contents of the tank, plus steel bollards. The fuel companies aren't supposed to deliver fuel if the tank isn't stickered to meet the standards but most still do for now.

[dalek]

dalek, I am sure that reg will be in place here in the not too distant future but at this point the gravity fed tanks are still okay. The Environmetal Farm Plan criteria is as cowman said to have it contained with a berm but that is not a regulation.

[dalek]

Forgot to mention, I have a neighbour who dumped a 5 gallon can of diesel that got contaminated with water on the grass 300' from his well - within a week the well was ruined. If diesel gets into your water source, it takes very little to do a lot of damage.

[dalek]

Cakadu may have mentioned this before but in the spring of 2004 one of the big chem companies had a contest on radio stations all over offering local listeners a chance to win 20 acres of a new corn herbicide. Gave out a 20 acre box every morning here for 5 mornings. On the 5th morning, the manager of our local chem dealership, who didn't know about the contest but was supposed to supply the chemicals when the winners brought their vouchers in, happened to hear the contest on the radio when my mother called in and won a box for me. He figured that was fine, he'd put it in my name and use my license since I would be the one using it, but it made him curious enough to phone the radio station and ask about the contest. Turned out they knew nothing about any license requirements, the previous 4 mornings the prizes had all been won by non-farmers. 3 were intending to use the whole 20-acre box on their single rows of sweet corn (which it wasn't labelled for anyway), the 4th was planning to resell it on eBay. He refused to deliver any prizes other than to me. Don't know what ever happened between the other "winners" and the radio station but he was in the right all the way.

[dalek]

Oops make that I may have mentioned. Not long after that, I was in at the dealership when a gardener came in wanting to buy a tote of Touchdown IQ for his garden. I forget how many hundreds of spray bottles of Roundup he had used on his half-acre the year before but it was scary. He left empty-handed too.

[cowman]

Well I believe it is supposed to be the law, in Alberta, that you have to have at least 40 acres before you can buy certain chemicals? So in reality emeralds co-worker either owned other land, had an industrial license, got a neighbor to buy it or the distributor just ignores the law? A farmer(40 acres or more) does not need a license, in Alberta to buy herbicides, nor does he need any training! I find it funny that a lot of farmers have trouble with metric so usually just let the chem dealer make the calculations...which often are right at the maximum or beyond!
dalek: There are no regulations for deisel or gasoline tanks yet, but like emerald says there are recommendations through the environmental farm plan. Apparently the local Co-op stores are supposed to be getting in a steel catch basin type of containment system sometime in the future, but right now the best option is a cement catch system? I do know that industrial users of deisel are supposed to have a double tank but I don't think it is ever
enforced.

[cowman]

Our local general store still has an old underground gas tank, which actually is buried in the county right of way. The estimate cost to move it is $50,000.

There are some requirements for pesticide applicators lic. aren't there cowman. I know our county used to offer them annually for farmers.

Some municipalities provide products such as Lontrel free to local farmers that rent the county sprayer. Counties are not allowed to decant and sell product but are not prohibited from giving it away.

As Linda says, completing the Environmental Farm Plan allows producers to become aware of the environmental issues on their own farm and do what they can to mitigate any adverse effect on the environment, however, my beef with it is the lack of information about regulations. What I was told by the folks in charge is that putting reference to regulations in the voluntary plan might create a liability if the operator was in violation with them !

There are supposed to be some changes coming with the plan, which likely will address some of what I have been concerned about. I always feel that it is best to be aware of any legislation that I am required to be in compliance with vs being in the dark.

[cowman]

emerald: A chemical applicators license isn't all that easy to get anymore and it is the gift that keeps on giving! You need so many credits every year to keep it up and like all the government BS it costs a fair bit...about $450/year. Not all that many licensed applicators around any more.
Of course in Alberta, like just about all their government BS, there is little enforcement, so who cares, right?
Just recently there was an incident where some unlicensed person got caught for killing off the neighbors trees. I guess the really big question was where did he get the chemicals?
Farmers are exempt from the licence requirements, just like they are from most commercial regulations such as transportation of dangerous goods. I guess they figure you get a brain or something when you buy a piece of dirt.