Agricultural Animal Production

The EPA has proposed changes that will fundamentally impact how Agricultural Producers conduct rodent control, effectively eliminating responsible usage of the most successful form of rodent control... rodenticides.

ALL Bulk Rodenticides (4lbs. and up), will become RESTRICED USE PESTICIDES (RUPs).

WITH THIS CHANGE, PRODUCERS WILL FACE A VARIETY OF NEW CHALLENGES

Use of applicators to administer RUPs will increase biosecurity risks and drive up costs
RUP status for rodenticides means your costs to maintain control will increase dramatically... directly affecting food prices

RUPs require tracking, monitoring and reporting to regulators

Licenses will be mandatory in order to purchase or use RUPs
Your ability to hire or develop personnel to get and maintain licenses will be a labor nightmare

Each year, rodents continue to increase in population and wreak havoc on farms, destroying buildings, equipment, and contaminating food.

THIS WILL MAKE IT WORSE!

Producer's Worst Nightmare

Rodent populations & food contamination are increasing – RUPs will make it worse!

BE PREPARED TO PAY MORE MONEY

Required Licenses & Expensive Turnover OR Potential Biosecurity Contamination

IMPACT

Licensed Employee

The cost to have a licensed laborer as an employee would be less expensive than hiring a professional applicator but still may not be in your budget for the additional labor cost. However, you may want more than one licensed employee to cover vacations and sick days away from work and this will be additional costs.
Like all work sectors, animal production and farming are facing shortages in labor force. Finding skilled workers is already difficult and now additional training will have to be done to obtain license to use restrictive rodenticides. Many of these operations would not have the ability to obtain licenses, leaving them to hire a professional applicator if they want to control rodents.
Add in the turnover rate of laborers and it will become an upward battle to keep the rodents at bay while trying to keep a licensed professional on staff.
Each applicator requires either training courses (fees involved) or some can apprentice for a period of time (time away from work/family). Then there is another fee for the license needed depending on type and location. Producers will have to offset these expenses and food cost will go up.
Not only will this ruling require a license to apply rodenticides, but RUPs come with a lot of paperwork and onerous requirements.
Can you find someone who is willing to be trained in and licensed in Restricted Use Products (RUPs) and will wear the necessary PPE (gloves, respirator, eye protection, etc.) in the hot summer days? This could cause refusal of wearing PPE and/or turnover.

Professional Applicator

Licensed RUP applicators/professionals will be in high demand and cost more because of the demand for their services.
Hiring professional applicator can create some more risks in a biosecurity program due to the frequency needed for all requirements for rodent control using RUPs.
To prevent cross-contamination, professional would have to be EXCLUSIVE to producer and their farms or space out services between customers, which may be difficult.
Without exclusivity, the spacing time between customers will cause delays and could produce an upward spike of rodents due to lack of monitoring and bait station refilling.
If applicators become necessary for usage and compliance, costs for conversion of animals will increase dramatically which will directly affect the cost of the overall food supply.