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Mike Turner wrote:In addition to roundup residues in hay, there is another set of herbicides that you have to watch out for in hay. They are Aminopyralid, clopyralid, and picloram (a commonly used brand is Grazon) which are highly persistent herbicides that are sprayed onto hayfields to kill broadleaved plants. Its called Grazon because its supposedly safe for livestock to graze on immediately after applying and its convenient to the grower because it only has to be applied once a year. The problem is that it is so persistent that you can take late summer cut hay from one of these fields that was sprayed in the spring, feed it to your livestock, compost their manure, apply the compost to your plants the following spring, and it will still affect your broad leaved plants. Members of the pea, tomato, grape, and persimmon families are particularly sensitive to it. Last year I got a round bale that had unknowingly came from a field treated with Grazon and when I applied the composted sheep manure/bedding to my beds, caused my peas, favas, potatoes, and tomatoes to produce distorted growth. To make things even worse, they sprayed the field adjacent to mine with Grazon while a 15 mph wind was blowing and the spray drift onto my property mostly wiped out that year's wild persimmon crop located 100 to 200 feet from the property line, killed a seedling bed of honey locust next to the property line, killed all of the clover in my pasture within 30 feet of the property line, almost killed a concord grape located 10 feet from the line, delayed and greatly reduced my muscadine grape harvest, and greatly delayed blooming in some mimosa trees located over 100 feet from the property line. I didn't notice any effects in my vegetable garden but then it was already being impacted by the Grazon contaminated compost.
Trade names for these herbicides include Milestone, ForeFront, Pharaoh, Banish, Stinger, Millennium Ultra, Millennium Ultra Plus, Access, Tordon, Surmount, Grazon and Pathway. When you purchase hay, before buying, be sure to ask the farmer if he had applied any of these herbicides to his fields, and if he had, tell him why you are not buying his hay. A problem is when you buy hay second hand, such as from a feed store, you have no way of knowing you are buying herbicide contaminated bales. Also some of this herbicide is being used on grain fields and is finding it way into processed livestock feed whose resulting manure can cause problems in your garden. A common symptom on peas, potatoes, and tomatoes is a "fern fiddlehead" like appearance to the new growth. It is suppose to be persistent in the soil for 2-3 years.
John Polk wrote:Have you contacted your local County Extension Agent?
He would probably know of locals that are not using chemicals.
A good county agent has good knowledge of what is happening in his district.
And yet I feel it's all a part of the silver lining. I realize it's treading a bit closely to the edge of the apple masher of the Cider Press, but it may come down to re-calibrating our personal notion of "trust". After 50+ years on the blue marble, it's hard not to *want* to trust that your food, clothing, air, water, and environment are being treated with care and concern. It takes a while to sink in that generally this is the last consideration. But there is a balance between trusting and not trusting and after a while it comes down to producing what you can (with your own efforts, knowledge of what went into it, and on your own land) so that you know to the best of your ability how something was produced, and then obtaining other things through sources that you can't control. But even in the latter case, do the best that you can......find a supplier who can at least tell you how the product was made and handled. Even in that case, there will be trust involved since you have to believe what you are being told without requesting an elemental analysis and herbicide/pesticide test. Still, if and/or when more people start caring about their internal and external environment, that will shift the suppliers to respond accordingly. The drip, drip, drip, of psychosociological change....
More immediately, Brian V, I'm not sure how far you are from southern Oregon, but it may be worth an annual trip to the Klamath Falls area with a trailer for picking up some hay....I see two organic producers on this list. Maybe one of these producers may know someone down in your area that would be a safe bet: http://www.oregonhaygrowers.com/klamathmembers.html
. We really do love Klamath Falls area. Might have to make a long weekend out of it.
do you have a truck and trailer? somewhere to store hay or do you have to buy it weekly/monthly?
here are my suggestions.
find someone local (or even semi local) that is growing hay. generally in the west that means there is some sort of irrigation. im not exactly sure how it works in your area.
is there a place were there is water rights, but not many large farms? generally in my area that is "horse property" type areas. i mention this because people who keep horses [seem to] have to perpetually buy hay. horses can also be affected by roundup on their hay. these people may know where to get clean hay.
meet with someone growing hay and establish a relationship. know how much hay you need for the year (or half a year?) and do you want 1st, 2nd, or 3rd cutting?
look for those using smaller scale equipment (small bales vs large/big squares) - my thoughts are most people using the huge bales are more of an industrial operational, where quality is less of a concern (it cant be the case with small balers too)
know when the hay is normally cut and work with that farmer to buy his hay "in the field" if possible. the more he has to move the ahy the more expensive itll get.
if all else fails and you cant find a local/semi local person to buy from:
avoid bales with striped twine (my local feed store tells me sometimes the gmo alfalfa is twined with orange/blue) if you can - ask your local feed store ih they have GMO alfalfa- tell them you dont want it. my local feed store thought it was a good thing til he got local feedback
there is also a product that is called "D.U.A. G.R.P." the GRP part is a "Glyphosate Remediation Product" that helps lock up the glyphosate modecule so it cant bind other nutrients. the website is www.abcplus.biz. go that and search for "Glyphosate Remediation Product" - my work proxy isnt allowing me to get to the site. We used this when we bought hay. it also helps the animals more thoroughly digest the food they already eat (there is a non GRP version too)
Well that's depressing.
