Please email me to let me know if you are still being affected given as much information and photos if possible. I’m especially interested in whether the manure is fresh or well rotted. Can you also state whether you give permission for your information to be posted on this web site. My comments are in green
John from Sandwell where allotment sites have been badly affected by the contamination of manure since 2008 has been in touch again to say that an allotment site in his area has had a delivery of manure suspected to be contaminated which has affected potatoes and beans. What is even more worrying is that John reports that evidence is, that it was fresh when delivered in January. We were expecting that any new problems would be caused by using manure that had been standing in heaps since before the weedkiller was temporarily withdrawn but this seems to imply that the manure has been contaminated fairly recently. John describes the effects on crops to be light and patchy leading the to possibility that this was a mixed batch of manure with some part of the heap being contaminated and other parts not.
The photos below were taken on 1 June 2011
Ann who lives north of Aberystwyth sent me the following email describing the problems a contaminated batch of manure has affected her small market garden:
We've contacted so far: the Environment Agency, Defra, the Health and Safety Executive, the Soil Association, the RHS, GQT, Dow Agrosciences. I am shocked by the level of disinterest and ignorance I've encountered.
In 2008 this chemical was thought so damaging it was banned from sale. Not long after that it was once more released for sale under the regulations of a new stewardship scheme and re-licensed by the Chemicals Regulation Directorate,one of whom's employees openly admitted to me that they cannot enforce their regulations in cases like this. This leaves me to wonder in which cases they actually can or even attempt to.
This has been a horrible experience for us on two counts: firstly we are losing a lot of our crops, a large part of our income and food, have wasted a lot of our labour and incurred a lot of extra costs, but secondly comes the realisation that there is no protection, that those organisations you think are there to protect ordinary people and their livelihoods, just aren't interested.
Dow Agrosciences will have you believe that the problem just lies with the use of old manure or fodder, produced before the new stewardship scheme came into force, because otherwise this new scheme may be found wanting and their license once more withdrawn.
The manure that is affecting our crops was produced this winter just gone by horses who ate affected hay that was grown over the summer of 2010, this manure was then composted through a hotbed and used in planting and potting mixtures for our tomatoes, cucumbers etc. We also top dressed potatoes and other crops. So no old fodder or manure in our case.
We have, where we were able to do so, removed the manure from our raised beds, together with previously laid down layers of compost and now have an enormous heap of this, about 5 tonnes, as well as another tonne and a half of pure manure sitting in a corner of our plot. Dow Agrosciences have now agree to arrange for it to be taken away. Strange they do this, yet say it's not a sign that they admit liability.
This year our market garden should have made us a little profit, for the first time since we took it on. It would have been a just reward for the many, many hours of hard work over the last two years and every bit of our savings invested in it. Instead, we'll be running at such a loss, we need to ask ourselves whether it's really worth it? I know we are more likely to win the lottery three times in a row than to see any compensation and that is just not right!
When we hear how big agrochemical companies in the US run the roost, we always think that it couldn't happen here. Well, let's say, I'm not so sure about that anymore...
Thanks for your support and all the info on your website, Sue, it has been such a help!
Ann also sent the following photographs also taken in June 2011
