Contaminated manure warning

Larumbelle

Primarily it is farmyard manure, although in a few cases it is allegedly commercial manureor commercial compost, I know of pending legal action against three commercial brands at the moment, but I am not mentioning the brands as I can't vouch for the accuracy of the claims.
Municipal compost seems to be a bit of a problem, and unfortunately many commercial compost companies buy their raw compost from the councils. And the problem will only get bigger, as many people have disposed of contaminated manure through the 'green waste' bins. Broadly speaking compost is not a problem at this time.

As regards manure, in all honesty I wouldn't buy it myself right now, personally I would get some chicken manure pellets or seaweed instead. The manure 'chain' is a long, complicated and interconnected one. ALSO, do not think you are safe with 'organic' compost or manure - there is no legal restriction on use of the word regards compost etc. (In fact, an organic farmer may source and use manure from unregistered land even if they know it is swimming in chemicals and still call the resulting crop 'organic').

There are people working on a home test for it but I can't give any more details than that right now. All of the information coming out is very disjointed (on both sides of the problem) and while I and some others are working hard to collate everything and publish it in a coherent way news is changing all the time. One thing is for sure - the cases that have come out so far are the 'start' of the problem, not the 'end'.

~Chameleon~

Thanks, that's very helpful. The only thing I've really used on my garden, apart from my own compost, are a few bags of "organic compost" from the local garden centre just to try and get some goodness into the soil. I was considering buying some bags of the farmyard manure too this autumn but now I'm not so sure.

For some reason I'm not keen on buying municipal compost as I don't trust what other householders might have stuck in it :rotfl:

Although, am I right in thinking that the methods they use to compost it down at high temps would possibly kill off any bad bacteria/disease?

Larumbelle

~Chameleon~ wrote: »

Thanks, that's very helpful. The only thing I've really used on my garden, apart from my own compost, are a few bags of "organic compost" from the local garden centre just to try and get some goodness into the soil. I was considering buying some bags of the farmyard manure too this autumn but now I'm not so sure.

For some reason I'm not keen on buying municipal compost as I don't trust what other householders might have stuck in it :rotfl:

Although, am I right in thinking that the methods they use to compost it down at high temps would possibly kill off any bad bacteria/disease?

Kinda. The methods they use ensure that the aminopyralid breaks down so long as the host matter breaks down entirely. There is no guarantee that this will happen, and infected matter not breaking down the way it should is how aminopyralid got into people's gardens in the first place. As already stated claims are being made against manufacturers of compost, two of whom have stated that they used municipal compost (one of those brands is an 'organic compost') - though as I said before, I would not vouch for the 'truthfullness' of these claims as I do not know all the details and so far as I know no samples have been submitted yet.

As I said previously, there is no legal restriction of 'organic' compost or manure and as it is all deemed to be 'organic matter' the word is exploited. Look VERY carefully on the back of the bag to see exactly what they are claiming.

RAS

Loads of our plotholders have been hit really hard. Their entire crop for this year has been ruined.

Mostly they are those who want to grow chemical free, so it is a double whammy.

Basically, the rule now is no manure at all unless you can guarantee that the land and any bedding and feed bought in is aminopyralid free. A few people have contacts who have livestock for which they grow all their own bedding, hay and silage, so they are OK.

Otherwise hence forth it is green manures.

I spoke to a NFU rep last week and pointed out that farmers are going to be unable to get rid of their manure in future and that would affect their income and disposal costs. His response was actually "Oh Sh......"

Larumbelle

RAS, is there any way I could contact you / you could contact me about this? I am working with others over aminopyralid right now and by the sounds of things we can help your plotholders and they can help us by helping us to document what is happening where.

The website I am working on is getting there now... pretty much just getting widgets finalised and legal bod looking over things for me. There will be lots of information and advice on what to do. I have asked Martin if I can post a link to it but no yes or no from him yet.

This situation is going to get far WORSE not better unless we can get as many people on board as possible to make a big racket.

irishwexford

We have been digging up and eating our potatoes with funny leaves for a few weeks now, A few of us allotment holders are affected but we were so pleased when we dug up a healthy looking crop that taste so nice. We thought it may have been the manure perhaps too strong but now of course do know the reason. We shall carry on eating the potatoes and onions as we appear to have no ill effects but will just use chicken manaure pellets in future.:eek:

Larumbelle

There is now a petition on the Number 10 website asking that aminopyralid be withdrawn from use. If you have the slightest worries about this matter, PLEASE sign the petition:

http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/Aminopyralid/

People power is important!

phil_51

Is horse manure ok from a local stables?

Larumbelle

That's the point phil - theres no way of knowing. If the bedding straw was treated as grass, then the horse manure will be contaminated. And most stable owners wouldn't be able to tell you - most farmers wouldn't be able to tell you exactly what has been sprayed on their land, for that matter. So you have to proceed with extreme caution.

SKIPPY54

Hi,Here is a petition to the prime minister if any one would like to sign it.
It asks to ban AMINOPYRALID
http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/Aminopyralid/