New changes in legislation
From January 2026 onwards, all buyers and users of professional second generation anticoagulant rodenticide products including farmers, pest controllers and gamekeepers must hold either a stewardship-specific training certificate less than five years old, or proof of membership of a stewardship-specific Continuing Professional Development scheme.
These changes are designed to reduce the impact of secondary poisoning on non-target species.
These regulatory changes will leave farmers with two options. 1. Employ the services of a professional pest control company 2. Complete a stewardship-specific training course to gain a certificate which will allow you to continue buying second generation anticoagulant rodenticide.
From 4 July 2024, you will no longer be able to buy any of the five second generation anticoagulant rodenticides for use in open areas or farmland, this will obviously affect the way you as farmers carry out pest control, there are now limited options available to effectively control rodents in these open spaces.
AgriPest are already seeing the effects of these changes and it is import for you as farmers to get things in order before all the changes come in place. AgriPest are a small, family run business that only have capacity for a certain number of agricultural contracts so please get in touch to avoid disappointment.
These changes are designed to reduce the impact of secondary poisoning on non-target species.
These regulatory changes will leave farmers with two options. 1. Employ the services of a professional pest control company 2. Complete a stewardship-specific training course to gain a certificate which will allow you to continue buying second generation anticoagulant rodenticide.
Is this change in regulation just another money-making operation? designed to squeeze farmers that are already dealing with significant price increases throughout the industry or do these changes actually hold benefits to both the agricultural sector and the wildlife that lives within?
The AgriPest team have been speaking to hundreds of our customers to gauge the feelings of the farming community and whether some good can come from these changes. The general consensus amongst farmers is that it could be for the good however there needs to be relevant agriculture pest control training course available to the industry, without specific training the current stewardship-specific training courses and qualification needed would make no difference to how farmers actually conduct their pest control on a day-to-day basis.
Farms are inherently at risk from rodent ingress and controlling these pests will pose many challenges to even the best pest controllers, putting a farmer on a general pest control training course which will often be tailored more towards the domestic and retail pest control sectors will not improve the knowledge farmers require in the farm environment.
If these changes are to happen, then farmers will need effective training on how to control infestations correctly and safely on the farm and how to maintain a pest free site using non-toxic methods. The industry cannot be expected to improve without support and industry specific training.
The alternative is to employ the services of a pest control company. With average costs of an annual farm pest control contract now exceeding £1,000 its adding additional pressures to already squeezed farmers. The farm environment can often prove a challenge to professional pest controllers, farms will often require the services of a specialist agricultural pest management company to gain and maintain a high level of control on the farm, these specialists are few and far between meaning many farmers are left with no alternative but to employ a company that often achieve lower results than the farmers themselves.
It is our belief that the agricultural sector CAN improve its standards but not without help from the pest control industry. The agricultural industry is a huge consumer of rodenticides and also often provide the homes of the wildlife we are trying to protect; it is therefore surely common sense that more support should be given to this forgotten corner of the pest control industry.
How can AgriPest help?
AgriPest have been offering agricultural pest management training for farmers for over 20 years, more recently the course has been upgraded and is now affiliated with Lantra. The AgriPest training course will shortly be upgraded again to provide farmers with the relevant stewardship-specific training certificate allowing you to continue purchasing the rodenticides required to control the pests on your farm.
As well as offering the training AgriPest supply a full range of professional use rodenticides which is offered to all course attendees at a 10% discount.
AgriPest currently offer a one to one – on farm training course. This involves one of our trained agricultural pest control specialists visiting your farm and conducting a practical based course on site with yourself or a designated member of staff. Due to the high number of farmers that will require training before the 2026 deadline we will be looking to set up a classroom-based course training up to 12 farmers at a time, but the course will still be focused on controlling pests within a farm environment.
Our courses are designed to save farmers money on rodenticide costs, improve the levels of rodents within the farm environment, help protect non target species and ensure you are audit compliant.
If you would like to discuss how our AgriPest training course could help you, please get in touch today.
nick@agripestmanagement.co.uk
Office – 01423358533
