 Every
agricultural product has unique chemical and agronomic characteristics
that affect it’s longevity in the field. This environmental persistence
determines many important usage variables, such as potential geographic
markets, cropping groups, formulation types, harvest intervals,
crop irrigation allowances, and the total active ingredient registered
on a crop. It is well known that long lived compounds are more difficult
to work with and register through governmental agencies. In these
cases, mitigation measures such as reduced rates, extended pre-harvest
intervals, limits on the number of applications, or the use of buffer
zones in ecologically sensitive areas are often used to protect
the environment.. Pacific Ag Research can assist with such studies
that help determine the specific environmental half lives of active
ingredients. This is accomplished through a staff of trained field
biologists and technicians that work in the field to support laboratory
determinations in soil and aquatic dissipation studies, crop and
rotational crop residue (RAC) trials and air monitoring (flux) studies.
The equipment inventory at the San Luis Obispo facility includes
a tractor mounted soil sampling unit for sampling of cores up to
10 m in depth, a GLP unit for RAC studies including current software
for electronic notebook documentation, ample GLP maintained cold
storage, and a staff that includes scientists with published work
on pesticide residues in fruits and vegetables. This level of expertise
is simply unavailable outside of a few major Universities or key
agrichemical manufacturer’s laboratories.
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