There is no current two-year private-applicator baseline under USDA Part 110: that rule was removed effective July 11, 2025. Choose the retention period by record category. Covered WPS application and hazard information is retained for two years after the applicable REI expires. Washington requires at least seven years from application; New York's private-applicator restricted-pesticide records are maintained annually and retained at least three years. Certified-organic records have a separate five-year period beyond creation.
Retention periods compared
| Record category | Period in the cited provision | Starting event or organizing basis |
|---|---|---|
| 7 USC 136i–1(a)(1), where no state record requirement exists | Two years in the statutory text | Pesticide use |
| Former USDA Part 110 private RUP rule | Rescinded effective July 11, 2025 | No current period under that removed rule |
| WPS application and hazard information | Two years | Expiration of the applicable REI |
| Washington application record | Seven years | Application date |
| New York private-applicator restricted-pesticide record | Three years | Records maintained on an annual basis |
| Certified-organic operation record | Five years | Record creation |
These are separate obligations for the categories shown. A Washington farm with certified-organic production and covered workers should map the information it keeps to each applicable category rather than select the shortest row.
The USDA period is historical
Federal Register 2025-08220 removed all of 7 CFR Part 110 effective July 11, 2025. Do not use the old USDA 14-day entry deadline or two-year archive rule as the current private-applicator default. A state can impose its own record period, even if an older form or guidance borrowed the federal layout. Compare the operative state provision and its scope before setting a destruction date.
In your archive index, assign an application reference and preserve the location key used in that year's register. Keep the original unit alongside a quantity when transferring old records into a spreadsheet. If an orchard block changes its working name, retain the connection to the earlier designation. These editorial steps help the next reader interpret an older entry without reconstructing the farm's naming history from memory.
The underlying statute, 7 USC 136i–1(a)(1), remains in the published U.S. Code. It contains a two-year record clause where there is no state record requirement, covering product name, amount, approximate application date and location. The 2025 final rule removed the USDA regulations; it did not repeal this statutory text. Keep that provision separate from the former Part 110 field list and 14-day deadline.
WPS: the archive clock starts after the REI
40 CFR 170.311(b)(6) requires the agricultural employer to retain the application and hazard information on the establishment for two years after the applicable REI expires. That information includes the safety data sheet, product identification and active ingredients, treated area, application start and end, and the label-specified REI. Link the SDS to the treatment instead of treating it as an unrelated download.
The worker display has a different duration. The outer posting deadline is 24 hours after completion, while 40 CFR 170.309(l) also conditions ordinary worker entry on prior display, REI expiration and the specified warning-sign conditions, subject to its early-entry exception. Display continues until at least 30 days after the last applicable REI ends or workers or handlers are no longer present, whichever is earlier. Ending the display does not end the archive requirement.
Illustrative date example: imagine a treatment ends on an invented date, and its applicable REI expires the following day. For the WPS retention calculation, use that following day's REI-expiration date. The example supplies no product, interval, or treatment recommendation; it illustrates which event starts the rule's clock. Record the actual label interval and actual application times in your own calculation.
Requests can arrive after display ends
A worker or handler employed during the relevant period may request a copy of, or access to, the retained information. The employer must respond within 15 days; the worker's request can be oral or written. A written request from a designated representative has additional content requirements, including identification of the worker, the requested information, and the signed designation.
Treating medical personnel have a separate access route: the employer must promptly provide requested information applicable to the worker's or handler's employment period. After a record has previously been supplied without charge, the rule permits reasonable, nondiscriminatory administrative costs for additional copies, excluding overhead. Preserve the archive in a form the responsible person can retrieve when these requests arrive.
For organization, keep a request register alongside the archive index. Note the requester, the information requested, receipt date, response, and the file supplied. Restrict the register's description to the request and response rather than adding guesses about a medical condition. The legal response duties come from the rule; the register is an editorial method for organizing their execution.
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Washington: seven years from application
Washington's statute requires preservation for no less than seven years from the application date. Where a commercial applicator treats agricultural land for a person employing one or more employees within the statute's definition, the employer also keeps the records for seven years. Receiving a contractor's copy therefore has practical significance for the farm's own archive.
The same statute requires ordinary requested copies within 72 hours and immediate access for treating health care personnel when needed to determine treatment. It also provides immediate telephone information on request, followed by a copy within 24 hours. Include the retrieval route in your office handover, especially if the person who normally exports records is absent.
New York: an annual private-applicator file
ECL 33-1205(2)(b) requires private applicators to maintain records of restricted pesticides purchased, crop treated, application method, and application dates. These are maintained annually, retained for at least three years, and made available to DEC on request. Keep the purchase-to-application relationship legible when a product is used on more than one crop or date.
Do not treat annual organization as permission to discard individual application dates. Prepare the year folder so that the crop, method, and date can be followed back to the corresponding product record. The separate New York guide distinguishes private records from commercial annual electronic reporting.
Certified-organic records: five years plus traceability
7 CFR 205.103 requires organic-operation records to be retained for at least five years beyond creation and to disclose activities and transactions in sufficient detail to be understood and audited. They must be adapted to the business and sufficient to demonstrate compliance. The rule also requires availability during normal business hours for authorized inspection and copying.
An archive decision should therefore address supporting records as well as the spray row. Preserve the document relationships you use to explain an input, the application location, and the affected production. Label retained evidence with the relevant record reference. When migrating software, export the attachment inventory as well as the visible register so the older season can still be followed.
Prepare a retention register
For each record category, write the applicable jurisdiction or certification, the triggering event, its actual date, and the minimum period. Keep a separate column for documents retained longer under your own archive policy. Before deleting a season, review that register against the records actually present and preserve the source of any correction.
Finally, test retrieval using a past-season application. Find its product identity, field location, worker information where applicable, and customer-copy attachment. Open the files from the archive location that a colleague would use. Correct unreadable scans and ambiguous filenames while the people who understand the season's records can still explain them. This is a proposed archive review, not an additional statutory retention period.
Give a software migration an archive acceptance check
Before replacing a record system, identify which historical attachments will travel with the register. Review a handwritten correction, a contractor's email attachment, a scanned paper sheet, and a product document from the oldest season you plan to retain. Keep their references together when a database export changes the order of rows or the spelling of column headings.
Ask the receiving person to perform a small acceptance exercise: find a particular season without using the old application, identify a treatment from its location directory, and explain the connection between an entry and its supporting document. Try the exercise with a printed extract as well as the electronic copy. Preserve the instructions needed to interpret abbreviations, decimal notation, timestamps, and units. Record a failed retrieval as a specific migration issue and resolve it before retiring the earlier archive. These are suggested verification tasks for continuity of your records; they do not change the legal retention periods.
North Dakota: a separate three-year state rule
North Dakota Century Code 4.1-33-14 requires covered records to be kept three years from application, sale or purchase. For a completed application, retain the actual application date as the starting reference. The North Dakota farm spray-record guide separates private RUP records from commercial/public records and explains the current entry timing. Do not substitute the removed federal Part 110 timer for that state rule.
Keep the archive index capable of identifying more than one purpose. When a treatment supports state records, worker information and a certification audit, list those references beside the same application rather than deleting attachments when the shortest period ends.
For this related task, see when the two-year pesticide-record statement applies.