Which form do I use for the LPA chemical inventory?

Integrity Systems publishes the LPA-03 Chemical Inventory Form as an editable PDF. You don't have to use that exact form — a spreadsheet or software with the same fields is fine — but the LPA-03 is the canonical template auditors recognise.

How often must the chemical inventory be updated?

Integrity Systems guidance is to update the chemical inventory at least every three months — confirming quantities and trade names of every chemical on the property. Updating only at audit time is the most common non-conformance.

How quickly do I have to record an animal treatment?

Veterinary chemical product details should be recorded within 48 hours of use, including the batch number and expiry date of the product used. This is the LPA rule whether the treatment was administered by you, a staff member or a vet.

Do I need a current Safety Data Sheet for every chemical?

Yes. A current SDS must be held for every product in the chemical store, easy to access in an emergency. A copy of the SDS holdings and inventory list should be kept separately from the storage area itself — so it's reachable if there's a fire or spill in the chemical shed.

LPA chemical inventory & records — what to keep

The chemical-records side of LPA is the bit that catches more producers at audit than any other element. Not because the rules are hard, but because the records were updated for the audit, not for the year. Here's what auditors actually look for — and how to keep the records once, not seven times.

What the LPA program actually requires

Under the Livestock Production Assurance program — administered by Integrity Systems Company on behalf of MLA — chemical handling sits under the Safe and Responsible Animal Treatments element. The producer's obligations break into four distinct record sets, and conflating them is the source of most non-conformances:

The Chemical Inventory — a register of every chemical product on the property (vet meds, ag chemicals, drenches, sprays, dips, paddock and crop chemicals).
Animal Treatment Records — every dose administered to a beast or mob: what, how much, when, withholding period.
Paddock / Pasture Chemical Application Records — every boom or spot spray, weed treatment, fertiliser-with-chemical application on country that livestock graze or hay is cut from.
Safety Data Sheets (SDS) — the manufacturer information sheet for every product on the inventory.

They feed each other — an entry in the treatment record references a product in the inventory; the inventory references the SDS held in the shed — but they're four separate registers an auditor will ask to see independently.

The Chemical Inventory (LPA-03)

Integrity Systems publishes the LPA-03 Chemical Inventory Form as an editable PDF. You're not required to use that exact form — a spreadsheet or software with the equivalent fields is fine — but the LPA-03 is the canonical template, and auditors recognise its structure on sight.

For every chemical product on the property, the inventory captures:

Trade name (the brand on the label).
Active constituent (the actual chemistry, e.g. ivermectin, glyphosate).
APVMA registration number.
Quantity on hand (volume / weight, updated at each stocktake).
Batch number(s) in current use.
Expiry date for each batch.
Date received on the property.
Storage location (which shed, which shelf).
SDS held — yes/no.

"All chemicals" includes paddock and crop chemicals, not just animal-health products. Glyphosate in the workshop, blowfly spray on the shelf, the half-bottle of louse pour-on in the ute — all of it.

How often to update it

Integrity Systems guidance is at least every three months. In practice that means a quick walk through the chemical shed each quarter, ticking off what's there, what's running low, what's gone past expiry. A diary entry of "stocktake done, no changes since last quarter" is itself a valid update.

The most common audit non-conformance is the inventory that's only updated the week before audit. That's visible — every entry's "date received" lines up suspiciously with the visit. Quarterly entries with a few mid-quarter additions look like real practice.

Safety Data Sheets

For every product on the inventory, you must hold a current SDS. "Current" means the manufacturer's most recent version — they get updated when constituents or hazard ratings change. Three rules auditors check:

One SDS per product. Don't keep one SDS for "ivermectins" and assume it covers three different brands.
Easy to access in an emergency. Stuck in a binder under three years of paperwork isn't accessible.
A copy held separately from the chemical store itself. The reasoning is obvious in retrospect — if the chemical shed catches fire, you can't pull the SDS out of the burning shed to give to the firefighter. A second copy at the house or office is the standard solution.

Animal treatment records

Every treatment administered to a beast or mob must be recorded within 48 hours — the LPA's hard rule, regardless of who gave the treatment (you, staff, vet). Each entry needs:

Animal identifiers — RFID, visual tag, or mob description.
Date of treatment.
Trade name + active constituent.
Batch number and expiry date of the product used (a regular failure point — most people leave this out).
Dose rate + total volume / amount.
Route of administration (oral, sub-cut, pour-on, etc.).
Withholding period (WHP) and Export Slaughter Interval (ESI) — see the WHP & ESI guide.
Earliest sale-eligible date (the day WHP and ESI both clear).
Person who administered the treatment.

The reason batch number matters: if a withdrawal or recall happens on a specific batch — vaccine, drench, antibiotic — Integrity Systems and your state department need to be able to trace every animal that received from that batch. The batch-number gap is the one that costs market access fast.

Paddock and pasture chemical records

Anything applied to country that livestock graze, or to crops/hay/silage destined for the feed bin, must also be recorded:

Paddock identifier (name and area).
Date applied.
Trade name + active constituent + APVMA number.
Rate (litres/ha, kg/ha) and total applied.
Weather conditions (wind direction + speed at application — this matters for spray drift).
Withholding period before grazing or harvest.
Date paddock cleared for return to graze.
Operator's name.

This applies equally to boom-spray, spot-spray, aerial application and granular spread. The "I just walked the paddock with a knapsack" case is the easiest one to forget — but if cattle grazed it inside the WHP, it's still a non-conformance.

Storage practices auditors actually inspect

Auditors typically open the chemical shed door. Things they look at:

Lockable and locked when not in use.
Cool, ventilated, out of direct sunlight — not the tin shed that gets to 50°C in summer.
Impervious (chemical-proof) floor and shelving. Untreated timber soaking up spills isn't acceptable.
Bunded to contain any spill — kerb or tray under the shelves so a knocked bottle doesn't run out under the door.
Separated from animal feed. Don't store drenches above the lick block stash.
SDS folder visible near the door (with a duplicate copy stored elsewhere).
No expired products still on shelves — disposal records for anything that's reached its expiry.

Common audit non-conformances

Treatment record without a batch number. The single most common one. Even one missing batch number across a year of records is a finding.
Inventory updated only at audit time. Date-received column gives it away.
SDS folder only in the chemical shed. No off-site copy.
Paddock spray records but no weather conditions. Just "sprayed, sunny" doesn't cover the spray-drift requirement.
Expired product still on the inventory. Either dispose of it (and record the disposal) or it stays as a non-conformance.
Active vs trade name confusion. Two products with different brand names but the same active constituent both need separate inventory lines.

How it ties together at audit

The auditor's narrative usually goes: pick a recent treatment record → trace the product back to the inventory → confirm the SDS is on file → check storage practice for that product → ask what happens to the empty container after use. The four registers should give one consistent answer at every step. When they don't — a treatment using a product that's not on the inventory, or an inventory entry without a corresponding SDS — that's where the findings come from.

Where Tagline fits

Tagline's Chemical Inventory module is built directly against the LPA-03 fields. Snap the product label and the line writes itself — trade name, active constituent, APVMA number, batch, expiry — straight into the inventory. Each treatment entry against an animal deducts from the on-hand quantity, so the inventory updates itself as you work. SDS attachments live against each product; paddock spray records are a separate register that link to paddock IDs and weather; the Audit Readiness dashboard shows every gap as red / amber / green before the auditor arrives. The aim is the four registers stay consistent by themselves — because they're all writing to the same line.

The records aren't the work — the chemical handling is. The records just have to be the truthful trail of what you actually did.

LPA chemical inventory & records — what to keep, where, and how often