About "Free Manure"
 

I was not aware that the issues surrounding manure went far beyond antibiotic contamination. This link highlights an emerging problem surrounding what happens to the manure of horses that consume hay that has been treated with a herbicide called aminopyralid, and how this manure can ruin your soil for growing food for years.


[url]http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/jun/29/food.agriculture[/url]

In organic circles we used to recommend getting free-by garden supplements like manure as a way to enhance soil fertility. This article and the discussion currently going on in general about how people's tomatoes got destroyed after using tainted manure highlights how cautious we must now be these days about what we use in our gardens.

Stacy

I get so angry reading this.

[QUOTE=Redbaron;336904]I get so angry reading this.[/QUOTE]

Me too. I just emailed the White House about it to complain, not that that will probably do anything, but I felt like I had to do something other than post on a forum, kwim?

Future generation are going to look back on our time and say "how could they have been so ignorant and so short sighted?"

Stacy

[QUOTE=bughunter99;336907]Me too. I just emailed the White House about it to complain, not that that will probably do anything, but I felt like I had to do something other than post on a forum, kwim?

Future generation are going to look back on our time and say "how could they have been so ignorant and so short sighted?"

Stacy[/QUOTE]

More likely stupid and evil

When it comes to many things past generations have been short sighted and ignorant.
This is the reason a horse friend of mine can't give me her manure.
I have told her a thousand times I don't want it.
I am not totally organic but I control what goes in my garden not someone else. :yes:
Worth

Is anyone aware of a woman named Sandra Steingraber? She speaks out against "Toxic Tresspass", the concept that we ingest all these chemicals without prior knowledge in most cases (Teflon is an example). She came up on my radar a few months back and I see her schedule does not include any stops in Texas.

She's amazing, IMO.

[QUOTE=Worth1;336930]When it comes to many things past generations have been short sighted and ignorant.
This is the reason a horse friend of mine can't give me her manure.
I have told her a thousand times I don't want it.
I am not totally organic but I control what goes in my garden not someone else. :yes:
Worth[/QUOTE]
I love using manure. I also totally beilieve in having control of what goes in my garden. Therfore, just to be able to use manure I have to go through the process of making a compost pile and then after the pile is cured testing the compost for 5-6 weeks before I know if I can even introduce the composted manure to my vegetable garden. That is just not right in my opinion.

Our local feedlot composts it's manure and packages it under various labels as something that is supposedly good for gardens. I put some in one of my small garden beds, and the plants leaves yellowed and they grew poorly. My brother put some on his whole garden. It ruined his garden.

I have always avoided manure due to the problem with weed seeds. I grow enough of my own without importing other people's weed seed. Now I avoid it due to concerns about antibiotic and pesticide residues in the feed and bedding.

i stopped adding manure the season before last because i was worried about contamination i guess it wasn't just over worrying. in my area virtually all farming or hobby gardening is done with synthetics. this will be my first season working with soil i have been growing everything in haybales the past couple years but i worry what is put on that before it grows. i always picked the lowest grade of hay with the most different looking grasses and saplings in it figuring that the grower wouldn't spend extra money on ferts and herbicides to produce cheap hay as opposed to wheat straw

edit: now that i think about it i bet city/town compost sites that accept grass clippings could be contaminated as well

[QUOTE=RootLoops;395609]i stopped adding manure the season before last because i was worried about contamination i guess it wasn't just over worrying. in my area virtually all farming or hobby gardening is done with synthetics. this will be my first season working with soil i have been growing everything in haybales the past couple years but i worry what is put on that before it grows. i always picked the lowest grade of hay with the most different looking grasses and saplings in it figuring that the grower wouldn't spend extra money on ferts and herbicides to produce cheap hay as opposed to wheat straw

edit: now that i think about it i bet city/town compost sites that accept grass clippings could be contaminated as well[/QUOTE]

They are contaminated, it is ruining the watershed in Austin in some areas.:evil:

All of the stuff is running off of peoples yards and into the water that feed Barton Creek springs.

[IMG]http://austinfineliving.files.wordpress.com/2013/01/barton-springs-pool-in-barton-creek-austin-texas.jpg?w=544&h=304[/IMG]

The city makes Dillo dirt from Bio Waste and lawn waste.
Bio Waste is a fancy term for sewage sludge.
So old Fred goes out and sprays his yard with kill all then piles it up for collection so it will eventually end up in my garden, NOT.

Worth

Yes I used to get city compost from Joplin. There was something on the news several years ago about a yard service using a persistent herbicide and that the city compost was no longer usable. I think they banned the dumping of grass clippings from people using the herbicide, but I haven't got any compost from there since. Since the tornado I am also afraid of other things that could be in the grass clippings. You can't trust hay or straw here unless it is alfalfa because people spray thistles. Alfalfa is too expensive for me. Hay for horses is more likely to be sprayed because horses are sensitive to some weeds. I think fall leaves are the safest free material still available.

I first ran across the issue in an article in... Mother Earth News iirc?
yeah, here we go here is the online version
[URL]http://www.motherearthnews.com/organic-gardening/aminopyralid-garden-threat.aspx[/URL]
back from 2008.
thsi stuff is scary

all the more reason to not support Dow, along with Monsanto, Bayer AG, Scotts/ MG, and any other evil company (Nestle comes to mind).

here is an updated article which I just found, too:
[url]http://www.motherearthnews.com/organic-gardening/killer-compost-zmgz11zrog.aspx[/url]

there was also some more personal, first hand account in one of these magazines where the writer tells you of their own personal devastation, a story that is becoming more widespread, especially given the fact these things are so persistent, live in soil for so many years.

my post on this thread was removed????
IMO, it wasn't political, angry or religious.
Probably need to spend less time here and more time focused on work and getting ready to garden.