By Kristine Schaefer
New release helps applicators maintain pesticide application records
A new release of the Iowa State University Extension and Outreach Pesticide and Field Records mobile app supports sending emails and printing hardcopies of crop and pesticide application information.
The free Pesticide and Field Records app, designed by the ISU Extension and Outreach Pesticide Safety Education Program, helps private applicators and commercial agricultural businesses record and maintain pesticide application information on their Android smartphones and tablets or iPads.
Users input application details such as crop and pesticides used, targeted pests, date and time applied, temperature and wind speed and direction while linking these specifications to specific field locations using satellite mapping capabilities. Application records can then be quickly and easily accessed, emailed or printed to comply with state and federal record keeping requirements. The app includes a convenient searchable list of Iowa registered pesticide products and Environmental Protection Agency product registration numbers.
“This app allows users to record information in the field at the time of application, and then print and email the records,” said Kristine Schaefer, PSEP program manager with ISU Extension and Outreach. “We continue to work with the developers to improve the app’s usefulness and features.”
Schaefer indicated the app gives applicators the opportunity to see satellite images of sensitive areas such as creeks, streams or other features such as wet or weedy areas of the field prior to applying pesticides.
The newly updated Pesticide and Field Records app can be downloaded from Google Play for Android operating systems. The app’s iPad version can be found under Pesticide and Field Records Plus at the iTunes store. Developers are working on an iPhone version. Previous users of the iPad app will need to download the new version to access the printing and email features.
Development of the app was funded by the ISU Extension and Outreach Pesticide Safety Education Program and a grant from EPA under assistance of the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship Pesticide Bureau.
Source:iastate.edu