Roaming Zebra

I don’t think this is something which will have affected us – we only applied 1 small bag of manure to our plot (though some sites indicate the effects can last up to 3 years, so we don’t really know). I heard some mention of this a few days ago, but it was mentioned on the TV this morning, so I thought I’d do some further investigation…

There are reports (see here, here, here, here and here in the comments) of crop problems at a number of allotment sites and it looks like the cause is from manure which is contaminated with a herbicide. The contamination seems to have been caused by having been sprayed on grass which is then either used as food or bedding for cattle or horses. As some farmers buy in feed for their animals, they may be unaware of the spraying themselves so it might actually be quite difficult to determine how safe the manure is for use on food crops.

The RHS have posted some advice on the causes, symptoms and what to do, though basically it looks like you shouldn’t eat affected crops.

Image from Wikimedia Commons, by Malene Thyssen.