SportsTurf provides current, practical and technical content on issues relevant to sports turf managers, including facilities managers. Most readers are athletic field managers from the professional level through parks and recreation, universities.
Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/765909
34 SportsTurf | January 2017 www.sportsturfonline.com FACILITY & OPERATIONS database before I decide to purchase. EPA registration numbers are assigned under a rigorous set of standards and very specifi c rules. The fi rst grouping of numbers identifi es the company holding the registration. Syngenta registrations all start with 100, NuFarm is 228, BASF is 7969, Bayer is 432 and so on for each company. The second set of numbers after the hyphen identifi es the specifi c product. Dow Agrosciences' Eagle 40WP fungicide is 62719-417 while Fore 80WP Rainshield is 62719-388. Occasionally, a third set of numbers appears which identify the distributor. Prokoz is a value-based brand available through a cooperative group of owner/distributors. Their myclobutanil fungicide, Hoist, has the EPA registration number 62719-417-72112. With the nomen- clature just described, it is easy to identify that the fi rst two sets of numbers are identical to the Dow AgroSciences' product Eagle 40WP with only the addition of the Prokoz distributor code. The addition of a distributor number and name only sig- nifi es a business arrangement and the label must be exactly the same as the original product's master label, with the exception of formatting and artwork that do not affect the product. INFORMED DECISIONS With an understanding of how EPA registration numbers identify a product's provenance and the handy PPLS tool to cross reference and compare chemicals, I have confi dence that I can quickly determine if something is truly unique or just rebranded. It is the trend of agrichemical companies to use post-patent active ingredients and create proprietary, new formulations. These new formulations may have additives to improve mixing, tank compatibility, plant uptake, stability during storage, or a number of other factors. They must be submitted to the EPA and go through all the stringent tests and requirements at signifi cant expense to the formulator to validate the claims and receive a unique EPA registration number. As I mentioned at the beginning of the article, there are only a few new active ingredients coming to market annually, but the number of new formulations and combinations are plentiful. Having fewer choices may have been simpler, but the variety of products and the spectrum of pricing in today's market puts a sophisticated turf management program within the reach of all managers who want one. It is still imperative to master the basics of pesticide classes, active ingredients, and modes of action. But it is equally important to develop a method for vetting new offerings as economics, pathogens, the regulatory environment, and the expectations of our customers will evolve with or without us! Please check out the EPA's Pesticide Product Label System (PPLS) at https://iaspub.epa.gov/apex/ pesticides/f?p=PPLS:1 for information on the products you are considering. Rebecca Auchter is manager, grounds, for the Public Works Department of Cranberry Township, PA