Saskatchewan has picked up an extension on the emergency-use registration of strychnine to control gophers.
The province announced Friday that Health Canada’s Pest Management Regulatory Agency (PMRA) has granted the extension on strychnine to July 31, 2010.
There are now 203 rural municipalities (RMs) eligible to distribute strychnine to their farmers and ranchers, the province said, noting additional RMs can apply to distribute strychnine by sending a letter to the provincial ag ministry, indicating producers in an RM have had “significant” crop and/or forage loss due to gophers.
Farmers in the province have until Friday (Jan. 29) to submit their applications under the 2009 gopher control rebate program. Farmers, ranchers and RMs can get a 50 per cent rebate on eligible gopher control products bought and used between Aug. 1, 2007 and Oct. 1, 2009.
“Gophers continue to be a serious issue affecting the bottom line of farmers and ranchers in Saskatchewan,” provincial Agriculture Minister Bob Bjornerud said in a release last week. “This rebate is intended to help ease the financial pressures producers are facing when dealing with this problem.”
