GRASS CLIPPINGS IN COMPOST FREE

If you don’t know which, if any, herbicides were used, use the bioassay described below to test for the presence of herbicides. They may suggest the manure is “safe” because their animals have not been affected. Some livestock owners can tell you this, but many might not know the products used or the origin of the hay they purchased. Farmers and gardeners wanting to use manure or compostīefore acquiring or using manure - fresh, aged or composted - ask what the animals were fed, the origin of the hay, and what, if any, herbicides were used on the hay or pasture.

GRASS CLIPPINGS IN COMPOST FREE

Note that it takes four to seven days for most animals’ digestive tracts to clear and the manure produced to be free of any herbicide residue. Manures that contain these herbicides can be safely spread on grass pastures or grass hayfields. It may contain one of the herbicides of concern. If you do not know the herbicide “history” of the hay, do not sell or give away the manure from animals who consumed the hay for use in growing plants or to make compost. The absence of legumes in hay, however, does not mean that these herbicides are present. If the hay has legumes in it, it has not been treated with any of these herbicides. A simple indicator that these herbicides were not used in the production of hay is the presence of legumes, such as lespedeza, clovers or alfalfa. Consult a copy of the herbicide label from a farmer or online. If you buy hay for your animals, ask the farmer or seller which herbicides, if any, were used in producing the hay.

Fruits such as strawberries and grapes.

Many flowers, including dahlias, marigolds, sunflowers and some roses.

Many vegetables, including carrots, eggplant, tomatoes, peppers, potatoes, lettuce, spinach, sugar beets, peas, beans and other legumes.

When mulches, manures or composts with herbicide activity are applied to fields or gardens to raise certain vegetables, flowers or other broadleaf crops, potentially devastating damage can occur.Ĭrops known to be sensitive to picloram, clopyralid or aminopyralid include: Depending on the situation, the herbicides can be deactivated in as few as 30 days, but some field reports indicate that breakdown can take as long as three to four years.ĭegradation is particularly slow in piles of manure and compost. These herbicides eventually break down through exposure to sunlight, soil microbes, heat and moisture. The chemicals of greatest concern are picloram, clopyralid, and aminopyralid because they can remain active in hay, grass clippings, piles of manure and compost for an unusually long time.

As with many other herbicides, they can remain active in the treated soil. The herbicides leach into the soil with rainfall, irrigation and dew. They can also remain active on hay, straw and grass clippings taken from treated areas.

They can remain active in the manure even after it is composted. These herbicides pass through the animal’s digestive tract and are excreted in urine and manure. They are used to control a wide variety of broadleaf weeds, including several toxic plants that can sicken or kill animals that graze them or eat them in hay.īased on federal and European Union agency evaluations, when these herbicides are applied to hay fields or pasture, the forage can be safely consumed by horses and livestock – including livestock produced for human consumption. They are registered for application to pasture, grain crops, nonresidential lawns, roadsides and certain vegetables and fruits. The herbicides of concernĪminopyralid, clopyralid, fluroxypyr, picloram and triclopyr are in a class of herbicides known as pyridine carboxylic acids.

Another possibility: the presence of herbicides in the manure, compost, hay, or grass clippings applied to the soil. Many factors can cause these symptoms, including diseases, insects and herbicide drift. The symptoms include poor seed germination death of young plants twisted, cupped and elongated leaves misshapen fruit and reduced yields. Many farmers and home gardeners have reported damage to vegetable and flower crops after applying horse or livestock manure, compost, hay or grass clippings to the soil. Local, regional and community food systems.

Commercial fishing, crabbing and clamming.

Grass clippings in compost