Free horse manure? Use caution-Aminopyralid

[Bughunter99]

As an organic gardener I used to be always on the look-out for free sources manure to compost and add to my soil. Recently I was reminded that I should use great caution with these sources. Aminopyralid is an herbicide that is still legal in most parts of this country. There are multiple ongoing lawsuits around it. It is an herbicide that is marketed to horse and cow owners as a broad weed killer. Here is the issue. The horses and cows eat in the fields that have been sprayed with it. The herbicide passes through their system and enters their manure. WHERE IT REMAINS ACTIVE. This means if you put this manure in your garden you have very efficiently coated your garden with an herbicide that will kill, stunt or make non-productive most of what you are trying to grow. Tests have shown that it persists in soil for years. You can ruin your garden soil with it. A number of years ago it contaminated a product called Green Mountain compost, resulting in it getting banned from multiple states in the Northeast.

The moral is just because it seems natural, does not mean it does not contain contaminants. Know your sources.

 

[marlingardener]

Bughunter, please tell us what country you are referring to, and where you are. That makes it much easier to understand and respond to your posts.

 

[Chuck]

Aminopyralid is another name for Piclaram which is used all over Texas and the US, especially with hay growers to control broadleaf weeds. A simple way to know if the hay or manure you have is contaminated is to put a big double handful into a bucket of water, stir it up good and let it sit for a day or two. Then pour over a dandelion or some other weed. If nothing happens in 3 days it is safe, but if you see any leaf curl, wilting or browning get rid of it. This is a pernicious chemical and lasts for years in the soil

 

[headfullofbees]

It's a hormone-based weedkiller.
Soil bacteria break it down in ONE year.
It affects only certain crops (solenaceae/phaseolus/pisum and a few more).
If you get some free manure, turn it over a couple of times, leave it an extra year, and, even if it's contaminated with aminopyralid, it will be safe to use.
We in the UK had a problem with it a few years back. It was withdrawn, then re-introduced with much stricter regulation, and shouldn't be much of a problem here, unless someone uses it illegaly

 

[Owdboggy]

Not so sure about it being broken down in a year, there are still people suffering from it a few years down the line, if one reads the reports correctly that is. It may be just bad cultivation on their part though.

 

[headfullofbees]

Not so sure about it being broken down in a year, there are still people suffering from it a few years down the line, if one reads the reports correctly that is. It may be just bad cultivation on their part though.

Last confirmed reports of aminopyralid damage to crops in the UK now five years old.

 

[Owdboggy]

As I said, "if you believe the reports".
Not been a problem for us, we do not and never have used animal products as we totally disagree with the way in which animals are kept where they can produce so much waste material.