Herbicide in manure

I'd just like to point out to everyone that this is not just in Manure, I had the problem with bags of compost that are readiliy available in garden centres nationwide. I'm not the only one either, I also believe the few of us who have reported problems are the tip of the iceberg as many many people will not think its dodgy compost but rather blame the funny weather this year or other pests and diseases.

Did you hear about the problems on Gardeners Question Time?

Amazingly many allotmenteers/gardeners are still unaware, there are a few of us trying to get the National Press and Gardeners World to warn everyone but with little success so far.

On our forum we have discussed it here: http://www.gardenerscorner.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=15248 and a little bit here as well: http://www.gardenerscorner.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=15387.

There are many other forums talking about this (too many to list) but the best place to get a summary of the problem and keep up to date with our attempts to publicise this are here: http://www.glallotments.btik.com/p_Contaminated_Manure.ikml

I'm pleased you have raised it again here as I'm not sure everyone visits each of our forum's sections.

 

tweaky: as far as i know it hasn't been taken up by anyone at a high level yet. A very few of us are jumping up and down trying to make a fuss but to no avail yet. The Pesticides Safety Directorate is the government agency responsible for licencing this stuff. They are part of the Health and Safety Executive (HSE). They control the use of pesticides in: agricultural, horticultural, forestry, the home and garden. They tell me "Our powers relate to the regulation of pesticide approvals and to the use of a pesticide according to its approval and do not cover the subsequent use of treated material such as the aminopyralid-treated grass" The buck does not seem to get passed on to anyone else, so currently no govt agency is bothered if us home growers lose our veg patches.

From the sales literature you can see this is a very attractive weedkiller for certain situations, as far as I know there is nothing else on the market like it (but haven't we managed OK up to now without it?).

The Real Problems
The weedkiller manufacturer (Dow AgroSciences Ltd) provide a warning that Forefront (aminopyralid) must not be used on food crops. I think the main problem is that the whole supply chain is too complicated to ensure this warning is communicated onwards. Dow AgroSciences Ltd sell Forefront via distributors, then a farmer or spraying contractor will apply the product, maybe another subcontractor will come and make the hay/silage, perhaps another hay/silage merchant will collect and store the grass product. This grass product might be sold on the open market and transported by another contractor. The compost manufacturer then turns it into compost (or uses manure from animals fed on the grass product). Finally a vegetable grower gets it, how is he/she to know what is in the product? Iâ??m afraid this whole chain is too complex for the warnings to be passed on from on to another.

The other real problem is the persistency of this chemical. The chemical strongly binds to plant tissue and does not breakdown until the plant tissues decompose. There is evidence to suggest this may take up to 2 years depending on the soil type. Dow have advised me not to replant until 2009.

Following spraying on grassland it passes through a cowsâ?? digestive system, the cows digesting the plant material are effectively concentrating the chemical in their manure. This is what is causing the problem on many allotments who have been supplied with manure direct from the farm.

My problem was caused by the compost manufacturer using contaminated hay products, they had never even heard of this weedkiller until I contacted them, and they make bagged products sold in garden centres nationwide!

tweaky: getting stable manure may not be the answer as the stables are not always aware of the provenance of any hay, feed, bedding that may have been imported from another farm. If everything they use is produced on their farm under their control then it should be safe. I'm trying to produce most of my own compost in the future, but will still have to rely on bought in seed compost. I will only buy 'certified' compost next time, i.e. with the Soil Association logo or others similar, I''m also running some small tests to see how easy it is to grow 'indicator' plants in any suspect/new compost, but this may prove to be impractical in the spring.

Forefront was launched three years ago and Britain was the first European country to use it. Last year, some professional potato growers lost crops after spreading manure (as reported in Farmers' Weekly). An emergency education campaign was launched, aimed at livestock farmers, vegetable growers and spraying and spreading contractors, but that did not solve the problem. This year more potato farmers have had crops ruined, so its not just us 'grow your own' brigade.

I fear we will see much more of this problem next year, it's devastating because although some veg are visibly affected (toms, beans & pots) others seem OK, but we are warned not to eat any of the produce

Sorry it's a bit of a long ramble but I've lost about 90% of my stuff this year (although most of it looks really healthy)

 

kristen: thanks for taking the time to respond, I've no problem with any of the emotive stuff - its a subject that hits so many nerves. I don't see anything in what you say as offensive, in fact I'm pleased you take such an interest.

Basically I agree with you about the advancement of science and not staying in the dark ages. The problem with this chemical is that there are no practical procedures to control it. Relying on word of mouth to pass on warnings is hardly a 21st century process, I think we could do much better than that to provide traceability. I can see the attraction of this chemical to the farming community but there must be a price to pay for ensuring that any grassland products are controlled, that price has to be borne by the users of the chemical. In other words I am saying that the price to the farmer needs to be higher to cover the cost of policing the product, this would be a good thing as it will encourage other chemical manufacturers to make less persitant chemicals that do the same job but don't need the tracability police.

Re: the testing or antidote, there really doesn't seem to be any reliable tests available let alone an antidote. Because it is so powerful only a very small amount is needed to cause damage to susceptible plants.

and another thing the digestive effect of cows effectively concentrating the chemical has been suggested by others - it may be bunkum - I'd thought I'd slip it in as it sort of makes some sense.

Re: your large arable farmer - well I bet I know an even bigger one than you, actually a whole family of them - Seriously I think it just goes to show that not everyone is aware - I know that some large compensation claims have been paid out and are in the offing again this year.

kristen: I appreciate your concern over my plot - I have a not so cunning plan, which involves swapping soil from a pile left over from some extension work I'm doing. I usually change my greenhouse soil every year, so it will just a 'little' bit more work than usual.

 

What I think 'could' happen is that the cows digest/breakdown the plant material, effectively freeing the chemical. So for arguments sake 99% of the cows intake is veg matter plus 1% chemical - what comes out the other end is a 1% s**t plus 99% chemical - figures adjusted to suit my argument of course Well you can sort of see what I'm getting at there I hope.


Sounds like a good excuse to play with a Digger and a Dumper truck to me!!

Damn, I've been sussed

 

Along those lines here is the response I've had from the Pesticides Safety Directorate identiying who to turn to for help:

The disposal of farmyard manure is covered by agricultural waste regulations, which are administered by the Environment Agency. However, where manure is used on agricultural land, it is not treated as waste, and although allotments are not agricultural land, the manure is being used for a similar purpose, so this is something of a grey area. On the other hand, manure from commercial stables appears to be covered by waste management regulations, which are also administered by the Environment Agency, but, again, the supply of stable manure to allotments also appears to be something of a grey area.

The supply of manure will probably be covered by contract law and the purchase of compost (and possibly manure as well) will be covered by consumer protection and trading standards legislation but this is not an area PSD has any expertise in so information should be sought from a suitable qualified person for information and advice on this subject - a useful starting point might be your local Trading Standards Department.

Like you I'm not a litigious person also I'm not a fan of the legal profession and I think they would be the only ones to really benefit, but unless a few heads roll maybe no-one will sit up and take notice.