WARNING: This COMMON Toxin in Manure Will DESTROY Your Garden!

Don't destroy your garden! I learned the hard way what happens when you get a load of contaminated manure. Persistent herbicides like Grazon are no joke, and they can be in hay and manure and even compost. You can even age manure in a pile and the stuff will still come through and kill many of your garden plants! Twisting growth is a sign of it, and weird stunting.
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[@TheSHOP411]

From what I researched, Dow cannot be sued for what grazon does to your garden, but the farmer that sells you the manure can be held responsible because of the labeling. There are a few instances of entire farms being wiped out. They went after Dow but because of how it's labeled, Dow is essentially absolved of all responsibility. The way it's written puts all the responsibility on the person who sprays, uses, the product and even warns not to use the manure for other farming operations. Maybe if farmers knew they are liable,they would stop using it.

[@davidthegood]

That is messed up.

[@stevefowler3398]

Wow!!!! This sounds familiar. VAX ANYBODY????

[@samanthak1449]

@@stevefowler3398 Bingo

[@larrytischler570]

@@davidthegood Dow was being resopnsible. Few users of ag products are responsible. If you buy hay for gardening use always ask the feed store or farmer what was used on it. When I took the organic gardening class at Urban Harvest back in the 90's this was an issue that was covered. On the other hand Dow Chemical was being run down for Agent Orange which they supplied for the Vietnam war. Their product did not contain carcinogic dioxins. Nevertheless the Democrat controlled Congress wrote legislation that bought dioxin containing herbicides then supported those leftist groups that collected $175 million from Dow Chemical. Fast forward, who controlled the funding of the VAX? Who demanded we take an experimental vax without the ability to sue for harm. Pfizer alone had 40,000+ unintended incidents in only the first two months after release of its product.

[@clashtwo5066]

It’s amazing, we live in a country where Congress is happy to let rich assho|es sell Literal Suicide And Death to people and it’s okay because they used all the right legal disclaimers.

[@FloridaGirl-]

So glad you are addressing this on your channel David! Many gardners aren’t aware of this still! Glad you are helping get the word out! It’s really a SHAME! I quit using all straw and manure. And now you wonder why there’s so much cancer! Yes! Keep blowing the horn and warning people!

[@dogslobbergardens6606]

We were discussing this earlier tonight and we too decided to simply stop getting hay or manure (or compost or soil or clippings or even leaves) from anywhere outside our own property. You just can't trust it. Food scraps from a restaurant? No thanks, I'll be skipping that idea. It sucks because our soil is heavy clay, it's only about 18" deep before you hit solid rock, and therefore we need all the organic matter we can get. But we'll just have to build it up with roots and soil biology etc alone, and we'll just have to be a little more patient. The good news is, we'll spend less cash this way.

[@MarySmith-ry9cu]

@@dogslobbergardens6606 can you find a like-minded friend and share resources?

[@dogslobbergardens6606]

@@MarySmith-ry9cu I do know one local farmer who doesn't use herbicides at all, he just didn't have any hay ready yet. So I'll probably call him again later this year. But I still feel it's important to rely as little on possible on anyone else, whenever possible. For all sorts of reasons.

[@carolavant3778]

We all need to keep blowing our horns and warning anyone who will listen! I'm also in Florida - North Panhandle, Zone 8b, and I do my best to keep my small homestead clean and sustainable. Another friend has a very large organic vegetable farm operation where I can sometimes get small loads of horse manure that are safe. So sad that we just can't go to a farmer and buy truck loads of "farm fertilizer" like we used too!

[@speaklifegardenhomesteadpe8783]

@@dogslobbergardens6606 if cardboard is OK, I'll tell you my solution for clay, years ago in the heavy rain I dug slop holes where I wanted to plant... Just really muddy puddled areas I took a shovel to digging as needed then shoving tons of ripped up cardboard and compost, even old tore up clothes until I was content then on top did cardboard gardening and leaves, lots of leaves and it turned into awesome soil. I'm still working on it as I couldn't garden last year for my medical issues but the ground looks good and stuff grew last year though I didn't plant lol God is so good to me. God bless and keep you.

[@desertrunner3277]

I'm stunned. I lost virtually all the plants in my garden last year: Beans, asparagus, peas, melons, squash, pumpkins, carrots, etc.. And I did the exact same thing I had always done: Mix in my compost with some steer manure and till it all in, and darn near everything died or bore no fruit. It makes perfect sense now. I am so pissed......

[@davidthegood]

I am really sorry

[@cherylkygirl7181]

I bought straw from a nearby farmer & went to his farm to pick it up. We used it as mulch for the garden, esp strawberries & garlic. All plants died. I no longer have his phone # to tell him about my experience. He knew I planned to use in garden & he didn't volunteer any info about straw. I bought several bales & didn't use the remainder. Is it safe to use as animal bedding?

[@swen6797]

Did you have the soil or compost tested? I am reminded of "You shall plant, but not harvest" in Micah 6.

[@BigTrees4ever]

@@cherylkygirl7181I would go so far as to say that no industrial herbicides or pesticides are safe to be in contact with for any living things.

[@omasthoughts47]

It happened to us. Eighteen months and finally able to grow. I found out most straw from tractor supply has had grazon on it. Yikes they are going to make sure we don’t have food one way or another.

[@davidthegood]

Nasty that it's in there.

[@mekay235]

That's how I feel. Everything is against us. But now we know. And if more people speak out. And share there stories. We can learn how to fight back.

[@MarlzJinx]

Yes, knowledge is power. Thank you David, and every one who takes the time to write in the comments. Its really honestly all we have .. each other

[@davidhunt7519]

I heard about this shortly after i hauled about 5 pickup loads of manure from the stockyards. I had already applied it in several areas. It didn't seem to have any negative effect on my fruit trees, but almost an entire row of blackberries died, while the row i didn't fertilize (because I ran out) didn't die. I re-planted, and the new plants died. It's pretty hard to kill a blackberry vine.

[@livesoutdoors1708]

We live in the wilderness and are so fortunate cause I only get manure from cows eating wilderness grasses. The ranchers don’t feed them hay, they’re too far into the forest and get enough. I wait till it dries into “pies” then have a “pie gathering expeditions” and fill the ranger bed. Then I compost it. With everything I trim and grow here organically and kitchen compost which is good I grew last year. No weeds, no grazon thank the Lord.

[@diggingforgreens]

Any animal manure is really good to use when it's already dry and soil-like ready to avoid injuring the plants.

[@jenniferwaters9479]

Absolutely love the Bible verses at the end of the videos and that God took that very difficult time and used it for so much good. The fact that you share it to help others shows how much you truly love your neighbor. ThankYou Davidthegood and May God continue to bless you and your family.

[@davidthegood]

That is really kind of you, Jen.

[@penderyn8794]

I wish European settlers also quoted the Native American religious and spiritual wisdom. Incredible farming knowledge helped improve my production........many eastern tribes were experts at Companion planting. R.i.p

[@dogslobbergardens6606]

One concern about just burying this poison is that it's highly water-soluble and does not adhere to soil particles well. As far as the experts know so far, it only degrades (verrrry slowly) by microbial action, which is mostly near the surface. It doesn't degrade in sunlight or by known chemical means, either. Brothers and sisters, when they say this garbage is "persistent," they REALLY mean it! >:( What this means is, studies have shown that it will leach down deep into the soil, where it doesn't break down hardly at all, and then either just stay there or pollute your whole water table. Nasty effects have been found with this poison in concentrations as small as a couple parts per billion. Uff da. The more I read and learn about this poison, the angrier I get.

[@TheEmbrio]

Yikes. Long live organic solutions.

[@dogslobbergardens6606]

@@TheEmbrio Absolutely right. EVENTUALLY mother nature will break down these persistent herbicides. In the meantime, we should simply avoid them as much as we possibly can. If I had my way they'd be banned outright.

[@johndyer9232]

Yeah, this crap almost feels intentional to me. If the our ability to grow our own food is eliminated, then they who control the food control the people.

[@dogslobbergardens6606]

@@johndyer9232 I hate to sound paranoid, but.... yeah. I often think about that sort of thing myself.

[@trollmcclure1884]

someone should be hung for this invention and its use

[@FreeAmerican-mm2my]

David - we have had cows most of my life. We used grazeon, spayed for everything. We stopped about four years ago. Two years ago, we started to grow a garden and the dirt was dead, no worms - nothing. Our dirt is just now recovering.

[@babystepsgarden6162]

I am so glad ❤️ you are getting your soil back. I am going to make a container garden this year. Studying all I can to do a better job of it than I did the last time I tried. 😊 ❤️

[@davidthegood]

I am glad you stopped. So sorry about the garden, though.

[@frenchfryfarmer436]

Thanks for sharing

[@SouthFloridaSunshine]

Wish we could put your comment up when unbelievers start telling new gardeners not to worry about it.

[@clashtwo5066]

@@SouthFloridaSunshine Inner City Rich Guy: Dont worry about it, just keep buying it and you’ll be fine. What? Yeah I own 5% shares in the companies stock, what’s that got to do with anything?

[@diannevaldez8670]

I understand how you feel about these awful inputs. You are feeding this food to your wife and children. I used to get cut grass from friends and always ask do you spray or add anything to your grass. One brother-in-law said no every time I asked. Then one day I see such and such in his garage and I asked, I thought you didn't add anything to your grass? He stated, well, just that. I stopped taking even grass from ANYONE because it seems "nothing" doesn't mean the same thing to EVERYONE!

[@j.b.4340]

That’s interesting. I heard, on the news, that because of expensive fertilizer costs, some farms were spreading manure over their fields this year. It has the potential to be a disaster.

[@clashtwo5066]

Praying to God that someone in Congress will approve of and support a class action lawsuit against Death Dealers like Monsanto and Co.

[@hithere5553]

@@clashtwo5066 asking congress to hold billion dollar companies responsible for their actions is like asking a drug addict to rat out their plug.

[@effervescentrelief]

They’ve been doing that regularly for decades. They get it from feed lots and such where the animals are fed and don’t graze.

[@melvinrexwinkle1510]

Farmers spread manure on their land every year and have been for a long time!

[@TheRoadfarmer]

​@@clashtwo5066Monsanto was sold five years ago. It doesn't exist anymore. But it's good to see that the Boogeyman still scares you

[@tmd7859]

It's amazing to me that places that sell hay can't tell you if it's been sprayed. When you specifically ask about grazon they've never heard of it. Watched a video from the popular gardener in Michigan he was planting something in straw bales said he wasn't worried about grazon b/c more and more farmers are using it less and less. Not willing to take that chance. Black gumbo on KZbin learned this the hard way. It was sad seeing his bed in that twisted plants state.

[@stevefowler3398]

We need legislation on this. I do realise that $$$$$$ are going to be involved of course.

[@titanlurch]

This a subject you can keep hammering home every spring . There are always new gardeners coming up the ranks who need to know. COMPOST YOUR ENEMY.

[@agrarianarc]

Thank you for bringing awareness to this issue David. My garden was destroyed by Grazon tainted manure in 2017… it still wasn’t easy figuring out the cause at that time. Huge learning experience. It is NOT worth taking a chance on manure from a source you’re not super familiar with. ~Katie WI 5A

[@emac1177]

Mine too...using straw or hay (cant remember which! Haha)

[@JohnSmith-fq7hj]

Glad I found this I was actually thinking about going around to some local farms and asking about the manure guess I'll be holding off in that.

[@smike9884]

I just got it from multipurpose compost/potting soil. Apart from saying it contains a small amount of peat, the packaging and manufacturer's website won't even mention what the bag contains - I wonder why!

[@melvinrexwinkle1510]

What did it do to your garden?

[@agrarianarc]

@@melvinrexwinkle1510 it killed the sensitive plants (tomatoes, beans, peas) Stunted growth, twisting leaves, distorted growth patterns

[@heyphilphil]

much needed info. really is getting to the point where we almost have to have clean diets....and store our pee and throw it on our leaf mold piles and use cover crops because all these outside sources and amendments are getting corrupted.

[@smike9884]

I'm now starting to wish I'd gone around the neighbourhood last year collecting leaves!

[@jimintaos]

Really pleased to see this. This has been my experience as well. I posted my experience a while back and got lots and lots of hate and folks telling me I didn't know what I was talking about. Still-being forewarned I got a load of goat manure and I let it sit for a couple of years before using it, but before I used it I watched to see if anything was growing around the manure. That was 7 years ago and there is still nothing growing where the goat manure was. Needless to say, I didn't add it to my gardens. Thanks for your post.

[@davidthegood]

You were right to stick to your observations.

[@loue6563]

Had a friend who loved to do straw bale gardening , until one year everything died. He had gotten the bales from the same friend but didn’t know he had started spraying his fields.

[@robertjohnson6586]

I have had the same problem! Aminopyralid is an herbicide that has a decent half-life, until it ends up in manure. Then the half-life goes from 20 or 30 days to over 500 days. It causes plants to produce plant cells that are slightly offset right on top of each other. Your plant leaves start curling and so do the stems. And it persists in the manure and it persists in the manure next to forever. They use it on the hay fields around here to kill Canada Thistle, and the Forest Service sells a product that has it in it. When you get horse or cow manure you had better ask, Else, you might be really really sorry. I have a pile of old horse manure that is at least 5 years old and it still affects plants.

[@BonaFideWildLife]

💯% spot on, @Robert Johnson! To make the math easier, 500 days full-life = 1,000 days = ~ 3 years! It should be a crime for aminopyralids to end up in for sale products.

[@OhmSteader]

Most people just attribute the problems to being a bad gardener and give up. This is a sad story which has affected us too. Big ag never uses manure on their crops. They go for commercial fertilizers. Dupont owes a lot of small gardeners for for their indiscretions, as they laugh their way to the bank. We are trying to remedy the situation with charcoal to absorb the poisons. Now we have to interrogate hay suppliers as to what they use on their fields before purchasing hay for our rabbits or the manure is useless.

[@hideawayhomestead3477]

We feel your pain. We were "blessed" with free horse manure a couple of years ago that caused great damage to almost all of our plants that year. Like you, we had dumped this wonderful free manure on everything that we were growing. A couple of plants survived, but the soil had to be removed and the garden for that season was almost a total waste. We eventually moved the garden to a totally different part of the property to get away from the tainted soil and the horrible Cogan grass. Your video was what helped us to identify both problems. Thank you for your information.

[@BalticHomesteaders]

Mother in law's tomato plants are curling and dying, I said straight away that's herbisides in the compost! Another great reminder to learn to close the loop, thanks.

[@harunseyrek4169]

I am in Florida and I figured out about it last year after wrecking 2 months of work (all peppers , tomatoes, eggplants etc). I got it from my neighbor's horse manure. Now I am very paranoic. Thanks for making a special video just on this issue and spreading awareness about it.

[@lisakukla459]

I can appreciate that feeling. I've been there as well. However, you don't have to be paranoid anymore. Look up how to do an herbicide bioassay. There's instructions with photos all over. It's super simple, and I've found that it really has put my mind at ease to test each bag of compost before using it. I used beans & chia seeds from the pantry as my seed for the bioassays, and sunflower seeds I grew 2 years ago - so basically zero cost for 100% certainty. I hope this helps!

[@dogslobbergardens6606]

@@lisakukla459 yes, bioassays are absolutely imperative if you bring in compost etc. But then what the heck do you do with it, if it turns out to be contaminated? That's a whole other ball of wax. I really don't think we want this poison dumped into landfills... and if you pile it up on your own place to let it compost for a couple years, it's almost guaranteed to be seeping into your water table.

[@lisakukla459]

@@dogslobbergardens6606 I agree. I don't think I'd buy yards of anything unless I could test it first before committing. Last year when I got hit with it, I didn't have the heart to throw out such a huge amount of brand new potting mix that I'd just mixed up by hand (by tarp, rather). I read that it's highly mobile in water, and there's a few ways to destroy it, like in a shallow kiddie pool with clear water, with soil microbes, etc. I think for a farm-scale situation it'd be different, but a one-off instance with a home gardener, I'm fairly certain that the soil microbes would take care of it before it reached the water table. I ended up checking out a local hydroponics shop nearby where I got three 30gal fabric pots and a box of a product called Bio-Live. I set up the fabric pots on a gravel pad, where any leachate/runoff wouldn't trickle over to my other patio containers, and layered the Bio-Live as I filled. I planted them up with onions and garlic chives, and watered them extra thoroughly and frequently, trying to flush the herbicide out. After I pulled the onions, I stuck in some random stuff, just to check the progress. Sweet potato and melon, and something else I can't remember. They all did fantastic. I ended up with a paper grocery bag 2/3 full of purple sweet potato, actually, and 4 delicious melons. If I had a homestead or a proper in-ground garden, I doubt I would have done it that way, but I'm currently living in an RV park with nothing but concrete and Bermuda around. My perennial patio plants that got hit before I realized anything was contaminated grew really stretched out and floppy all season, but they seem to be growing back nice and compact so far. I was very lucky to have learned this lesson with just a small container garden, and not one of the in-ground gardens I was putting in in friend's yards. I read so many stories of other people getting absolutely devastated by this nasty stuff. To my knowledge, Vermont is still the only state to have banned the use of this class of herbicide, but given the massively increased demand for manure this year, due to the current fertilizer shortages, I think we may start seeing more legislation soon. There's bound to be some farms that get impacted. Won't do us any favors with the high cost of food, but I'm trying to stay hopeful that the long game will turn out in our favor.

[@dogslobbergardens6606]

@@lisakukla459 thank you for sharing that experience, it's very interesting! I'm sure glad it worked out for you. I err on the side of extreme caution with this stuff, because the studies I've read show it causes a lot of damage in TINY concentrations, as in a couple parts per billion. I would like to see it banned outright, but I'm not super confident that will happen. I'm never very confident in gov't doing the right thing lol.

[@lisakukla459]

@@dogslobbergardens6606 Yes, I'm also generally not confident in the government doing the right thing, but we've seen time and time again that nothing pushes legislation faster than giant corporations losing money. With the fert shortage now leading to waiting lists for manure, which previously was difficult to even give away, there's bound to be some who panic - or simply don't know - and their whole crop is blown for the year, potentially multiple years. This could be the thing that finally gets it banned. I'm white-knuckling that tiny bit of hope bc otherwise it looks like we're in for a pretty terrible couple years. 😬 As far as the damage it causes in even tiny amounts, do you recall the source of info? Speaking of aminopyralid and that class of herbicide, I read in multiple studies that when ingested on food, it is detected in the feces completely unchanged, suggesting that it isn't metabolized and simply passes through the gut. Now, if you meant the soil life is what's damaged, that could be said about anything really, but there's lots of studies out there showing that soil bacteria and fungi do indeed destroy it. A colleague of mine did her Masters on it, showing that fungi was effective in neutralizing and eliminating it, and and there's certainly more papers out there. Are you sure you're not thinking of another class of herbicide? Glyphosate maybe? In any case, while it's critical to be cautious about what we're introducing to our soil, there's microplastics in rain, and recently I even read that they've found it in blood samples; Something like 80%, yikes! There's stuff in the air, the water, the soil, the food, building materials, packaging and household items we touch and use every day, heck, even the sun can cause cancer. You really can't escape it, no matter how careful you are. At least, not without sacrificing mental health, relationships etc, the things that are truly important. We just do the best we can.

[@renestewart604]

It even happens in South Africa. I bought compost and plant tomatoes and peppers in large pots. I was in tears.

[@discipuloschristi6787]

Australia here. I just had the same issue.. and they told me the compost was organic. Fork tongued, good for nothings..

[@lillian9221]

Also from South Africa, I have been trying to eradicate Lantana the last 20y. Used herbicides in a 1000l tank, after 10y I noticed that the grasses also didn't return in the summer. We bought a tractor driven mulcher and that changed things around. It is however a never ending job.

[@giancolabird]

I put hay on my garden and everything died. This happened years ago. I feel your pain. Sad times we live in.

[@mekay235]

For the last year. I've tried to grow a garden. I bought soil and bagged manure from. One of the big box stores. And I planted seeds. And nothing grew. It was pitiful. And I ask myself what did I do wrong, So I checked on KZbin. Gardening channels and came across David the good. And what he explained was an eye opener.... No more soil Or manure from the Big box stores, or going to my neighbors cow pasture. And picking up cow patties no more. for me Never again. I'm not gonna waste my time and money anymore.... I feel your pain too.....

[@darlenemartinez384]

Yep, I figured this out 10 years ago when I decided to experiment with straw bale gardening. I only did 5 bales off on the side of my regular garden. Not only did anything I planted in them look awful but just letting the straw break down in place and covering it with raised bed soil still produced bad results. I have horses and I no longer put their manure into a compost pile. I'm using it to create a mound in front of the road to block the view. And even though they are on my own organic pasture in the summer they still get grain which can also be contaminated. I'm no longer going to keep animals because of this. My last 2 horses are close to the end of their time on earth. My pasture is naturally going back to woods. And I'm just going to keep my garden. I'm lucky in that I have forest along one side of my riding arena and I get more than enough organic leaves every year to keep a good compost pile going. We are a very stupid peoples 🙄.

[@davidthegood]

Yikes!

[@preppernut]

Happened to us about seven years ago, I was ready to sell everything and move. I will not buy steer manure from the stores, and I don't even trust potting soil anymore. That Grazon is everywhere. We got it from composted horse manure at the local community fair grounds.

[@baltimoresbabyxoxo]

I bought Black Cow 4 years ago. This wasn't my 1st time buying this manure, but when I purchased 5 bags 4 years ago I actually cut 3 slices down the bag and directly sowed and transplanted beets and lettuce in the bag. This is something I don't ever do. I have in times past dumped black cow on my garden, raked it out and sowed green beans directly and they took off like crazy. But these 5 bags my plants weren't happy at all. The growth became stunted, the beets germinated but never put out it's 2nd leaves. In 2 weeks all my plants died. I called my son in law just in time and alerted him to not spread that black cow he bought to put into his new garden bed because something was wrong with it and it killed all my plants. Because he had already opened it and dumped it into his wheel barrel I told him not to dump it onto his property but to dispose of it far away. I found out a few months later how other farmers were complaining of the same problem with black cow and the grazon in it, but I haven't bought anything for my garden because I have trust issues. I'm so glad that I actually planted in that bag because normally I would have dumped it in my garden. There's no telling how long it would take for soil to recover from something like that.

[@hectorclan1]

David, thanks for ALL your videos! I have stopped purchasing any and all outside compost. Since I live in a suburban area and cannot have cows I started with chickens, up to 16. Between their manure, the grass clippings, no fertilizer or pesticide used, and the leaves from 9 mature oak trees on my 1/3 acre I produce plenty of compost for a 900 sq ft garden. Mostly I use it all for mulch over my sandy soil and let it breakdown without the hassle of turning a pile. My wife and I cannot eat all the produce the garden gives us. My advice to all gardeners is to take the slow approach to building your soil, a little at a time and be patient, produce your own fertilizer whenever you can. We live in Hillsborough county FL, (Tampa)

[@christopherc.4349]

Lived in Hillsborough County for 75 years gardening 50 of them. Just moved to Hernando County and am having to start building up the soil all over again 😆

[@carmellayates2503]

I'm in Hillsborough too . But because of my age not able to do any in ground gardening anymore I have lots of large containers that I'm growing in and I fill milk containers with water and sit them out in the sun hoping it kills off the chemicals could you please tell me what filter you got for your hose it's getting very tiring carrying out so many jugs .

[@jonnyhawt8973]

@@christopherc.4349 If you're is west Hernando County that sugar sand is some of the worst in Florida. I'm in Shady Hills and it's better than just north of me in spring hill. I used to live in Sarasota and the lot I lived on had dark rich soil. Never seen anything like it anywhere else in Florida. There's also a big difference in frosts compared to Hillsborough County.

[@christopherc.4349]

@@carmellayates2503 I am lucky enough to be on a well now but back then I did the same as you. Those jugs do get heavy but between the chlorine and fluoride I didn't want either in my garden. I spaced the jugs along the plants so I didn't have to carry them. As I used them I refilled them with the hose to set a couple of days to clarify.

[@christopherc.4349]

@@jonnyhawt8973 yes nothing but sugar sand lol. Am container gardening while trying to improve ground soil with ground covering crops, leaves and mulch to improve the soil.

[@lynnec.4392]

Thank you for bringing this to people's attention. I live in the UK and last year I had potting soil that was contaminated with this bloody poison. I really feel for you, it's so frustrating to put so much effort into growing good organic food only to watch it become yellow and stunted. I am growing quite a lot of plants just for the bio mass I can put in my compost, such as large plants like cardoons and comfrey.

[@smike9884]

I think the Levington's essentials multipurpose compost I recently bought is contaminated. I thought it was just manure that had this problem! So annoyed especially as I paid £12 for those 3 bags. I have also been using coco coir which I think is fine, but it's too expensive for all my needs. I need to work out how to make enough of my own compost that I'll never need to buy any again.

[@bevfitzsimmonds3382]

Excellent video, David. I can see that God has turned your previous disaster into something Good. He is so kind! Thankyou for warning us. May God bless the work of your hands...and your cows! I hope they are still going well. 😊👍🐂 🌱🌱🌱

[@MissionaryForMexico]

First huge mistake using a herbicide on hay meadow! I was taught by my uncle on his 50 acre farm. We never used herbicides, we never purchased seed, fertilizer. We made our own fertilizer from our cows, chickens, and drove to a fish processing plant to get free fish guts, fish parts. Our seeds were heirloom, we saved seed from each harvest. We always had the biggest yield from each acre. We had always the best looking produce. All from our own compost. Anything he sprayed to prevent bugs was made from using things like peppers, hot sauce, that humans consume. Everything on our growing and grazing fields were always natural. We even did crop rotation, and allow the field rest to one entire growing season! This was done growing alfalfa hay. Putting nitrogen back in the soil. Lastly we collected rainwater in a pond we dug out for when times there was no rain!

[@lokilyesmyth]

About twelve years ago I put horse manure on my asparagus plants. The manure was filled with straw. I had 70 plants. After spring I had 6 and they grew twisted but somehow survived. Five years later I replanted and am much more careful.

[@davidthegood]

That's awful.

[@lokilyesmyth]

@@davidthegood a learning experience :)

[@laurentyler904]

I am so thankful you posted this. I just built a 10000sf garden for my family and have been brainstorming how jumpstart my compost collection. I live a few houses down from a horse boarding facility and my neighbor suggested picking up a load of their manure… looks like I’d have to grill them on what’s in the poo.

[@davidthegood]

It's a risk for sure.

[@pamelacooley6457]

So thankful I found this. We just got a huge load of horse manure. Thankfully not in my garden yet. Now I have to test it.🙈

[@carlacowling1789]

Thank you for sharing this! I discovered this years ago. Herbicide contaminants are even showing up in commercial bagged manures.

[@thomassmith6344]

Hello Carla

[@thressastockton4275]

Is one of the commercial bagged manures BC?

[@shunshun4861]

Even ! But of course

[@dulce0403]

Thanks for the heads up brother!

[@bobsims762]

Thanks for taking time out to share this.

[@maryloomis8075]

Thank you David for the important info. I remember a few years back my neighbor and I were talking garden and he mentioned Amino pyralids which I had never heard of. That was the year all the people we knew who gardened lost their tomato crops. Makes me think.

[@Patriot-od6xk]

😱... 5 years ago I grew sooo many vegitables in my small garden I literally had to beg people to take it for free. That same fall I bought a truck load of cow manure and plowed it in, and my garden hasn't produced enough to pay back the seed cost ever since! Thank you for sharing this vital information!

[@davidthegood]

I am so sorry!

[@jmo2104]

Oh my gosh! Thank you for sharing this very valuable information.

[@alalmaoui5212]

Thanks David! I never thought of this.

[@DeepSouthHomestead]

Yep grazon lasts for many years in the soil. Made the same mistake myself.

[@patdunbar1026]

Thanks for continuing to spread the alarm and help us gardeners!

[@RebelStacker]

This was a very helpful video. Thank you David!

[@travisshowalter633]

Thank you for the heads up! First I've heard about this.

[@wadenoble3333]

I’m in the uk and this happened to me 3/4 years ago. Last year it seemed to finally stop impacting my veg. i.e at least 2years of stunted and twisted growth. Tomatoes seemed to be particularly susceptible to it. I’m ultra careful about adding anything to the garden now.

[@smike9884]

My tomatoes in Levington's multipurpose compost have started to become deformed now. So gutted. I have two trusses and they looked so healthy before. That's five months of nurture and grow lights out of the window!

[@susandyson3921]

Im so sorry for your losses in the garden. Man I can imagine how that felt. So much work !! Money and emotions too !!

[@cooperchauvin8163]

Love it David, always a pleasure to watch your videos! It's fun to see your army of minions as well. Music sounds great too. Godspeed to you!

[@belieftransformation]

Great information; thanks for sharing!

[@askaboutRudyV]

Thanks for the this informative video David. A good heads up for sure. These residuals are horrendous.

[@natureboy6410]

Thanks for the heads up Dave! This is going to make the journey a little bit longer, but I know it'll be worth it in the long run!

[@johngault8688]

Thanks, this is a very important message to keep sending out to the public!!

[@reneethomas5548]

Thank you for spreading the word.

[@asdisskagen6487]

Thank you so much for this. I had no idea that the chemicals had become so pervasive/endemic in outside organic matter.

[@mrs.kratos8355]

I’m so excited now that we’re getting our own cows in a couple days! This land is new to us, but judging by the amount of pigweed and other stuff mixed in out there, I’m pretty sure it hasn’t been sprayed with anything. I’ve never been so thankful to see weeds!

[@fredgillespie5855]

If weeds are a nuisance get a goat or two, but be careful with your trees the goats will strip the bark off and kill them.

[@ashleycampbell8799]

Goats won’t get rid of pigweed, or buttercups or perilla mint for that matter.

[@p0ln]

thank you for sharing your insight

[@thefishfin-atic7106]

wow! I mixed an unknown source of cow manure into my compost pile last fall, and now that spring is here, it looks nice and rich, but this video has verified me, I don't want to use it anymore

[@TheLaLaFarm]

Great information David!!! Keep spreading this word!! Excellent video!!! - Rick

[@dogslobbergardens6606]

Persistent Herbicide Trade Names: Clopyralid: CloypryAG, Confront, Lontrel, Mellenium Ultra, Reclaim, Stinger, Transline Aminopyralid: Chaparral, CleanWave, ForeFront, GrazonNext, Opensight, Milestone Aminocyclopyrachlor: Imprelis, Perspective, Plainview, Streamline, Viewpoint Picloram: Tordon, Grazon

[@dogslobbergardens6606]

from the same article: " Less prevalent compounds in the same class include fluroxypyr, dopyralid, and triclopyr. Many of these compounds appear on labels in slightly different variations making identification by the untrained applicator or a testing lab difficult." David is absolutely correct, just don't trust ANY of it.

[@davidthegood]

A++ posts - thank you.

[@dogslobbergardens6606]

@@davidthegood you're very welcome, just trying to share information as I find it. I agree with your approach; I'm just going to avoid outside inputs of hay/compost/manure etc in future. And I already avoid synthetic herbicides/pesticides.

[@mamagsprepngarden]

I just bought your book. Thank you! ❤️

[@s.nogales8483]

Hats off to you friend!

[@jenbear8652]

I’m so thankful you mentioned this years ago! I bought “Compost Everything “ a few years ago- did you mention it in that? I can’t remember. At any rate, I’d been using straw for mulch and then stopped as soon as I heard about the aminopralids (sp?) It’s a struggle to produce enough compost for even my small in-town gardens. Sometimes I get buckets of waste from a local juice bar as well as coffee grounds & those help produce more. Those help. This year, I was able to find a friend with horses who can guarantee their hay is not sprayed. I’ve been going & filling 5 gal buckets of her old manure this spring. I’m hopeful for my gardens this year. I’m combining gardening ideas from Sir Albert Howard, your guy Solomon, Charles Dowding, and other antique authors that Solomon mentions in his books! Solomons books on watering (and your videos) really opened my eyes to one of the main reasons my garden stopped producing well. I was (am still) growing intensively because of the small size of my garden, but I decided a few years ago, to not worry about watering that much- I think about what our ancestors and the pioneers had - they couldn’t constantly water their gardens, so I thought I should be able to grow crops without watering, as well. HA! I neglected to research or think about other factors in their gardens, like spacing. This year I’ll be watering my intensive grown garden! Praying the manure to supplement my piddly amount of compost as well as watering, and giving plants a head start by starting in a little greenhouse will see a great garden this year! Thanks for sharing all your knowledge, experience and experimentation! And the fun, crazy songs!

[@carmellayates2503]

I first heard about this from Scott Head , you're very wise to get your own cows perhaps anyone that can should . I've often wondered about the organic section of produce in the supermarket had any chemicals they don't tell about . Anyway when Scott talked about it I realized my problem wasn't really me , it was the cow manure that I used , I'm skipping it from now on . I'll just use my own compost and compost tea and fish emulsion .

[@endoftherope]

As a small farmer my advice is look for small farms that can't afford to spray or wouldn't spend the money on it if they could

[@davidcummings9388]

Thanks for the heads up.

[@thenpheler1]

Thanks so much for this info.

[@lauralee83]

I am so glad you addressed this David 🤗 I started my first garden 5 years ago . I've had a green thumb all my life , but this was my first 1000sq ft. Veggie garden. We live on a farm and our neighbors have cows. I asked if I could collect the manure for the garden. I spread it EVERYWHERE. I'm telling you I tried my best to "fix it" , but total loss 🥺

[@davidthegood]

I'm so sorry.

[@lauralee83]

@@davidthegood It's ok 😊 I've learned a lot since then. Especially not to use💩 if you don't know where it came from . 😄

[@sofeyah8]

@@lauralee83 😂that was funny,anyway thank you for sharing that wisdom..

[@lauralee83]

@@sofeyah8 😅😅🤗 I learned something new anyway lol!

[@hoperules8874]

@@lauralee83 hmm...almost sounds like a conversation about news media...or politics! lolz-good advice about all types of 💩!

[@DDWASH9595]

Recently moved to Tennessee and went to lowes and saw they had semi’s trailers full of hay. I was so tempted but passed remembered you and Scott Head did a video on grazon. Thanks for the info David

[@briannemorna4268]

Welcome to TN!

[@WisdomIsPrecious]

I love this channel, always educational and uplifting and stays on topic

[@mattlabishak4340]

Great information! Love the Tee shirt. I am enjoying the product of my second year's compost. It has been a wonderful exercise in stewardship.

[@ripdinecola4755]

Awesome info! Thanks! They problem for me is everyone sprays their hay around me, and during the winter I have to buy hay. It will be a while before our pastures are established.

[@DM-lk5ym]

I'm just now learning about this, it's madness! You have to buy hay, to winter feed animals, but their poop poisons your land & water table?! These big chem corps really are out to stomp the small & self-supporting farmers! I'm pretty livid reading all these comments here, and just realizing why my container gardens several years ago were a big FLOP. This Grazeon stuff - who ever thought it's a good idea to spray long acting herbicide on any feed product?

[@OnSiteTrav]

Great information David!

[@HORIZON8026]

thanks for this video. brings more awareness about pesticides.

[@thedoubleboiler6971]

Holy cow! I had no idea! I mean, yeah, it makes sense, right?! This should be like a common sense thing, but it's one of those things that I just didn't think about and yes, what goes in, must come out. Thank you for sharing! No everyone practices what organic growers practice and not all gardens or farms are the same. Thank you again, so much! You probably saved me hundreds or THOUSANDS of dollars this year and also our family health and well being. Seriously, thank you!

[@dirtpatcheaven]

We have had some goats die from sprayed hay before. It seemed to stop their digestion over time. We only buy mixed grass/alfalfa hay now, the more weeds the better.

[@davidthegood]

Yikes!

[@Hojjiifp]

Thank you for the warning.

[@sweetgrassprincess]

Big thanx for the heads up.

[@alexgorron6470]

Yes, this happened to me years ago. I made "tea" with it and my plants started turning yellow and then just started melting away, and no, it wasn't a thick amount, it was a weak tea. I will never ever use manure from the general box shops again.

[@Warrior-In-the-Garden]

Like I always say "If you don't grow it, you don't know it" - I had a similar experience with some horse manure - the only thing that grew from it was quack grass. Beautiful cows .

[@darlenemeade3690]

Wow!!! Had NO idea this could ever happen,but it did.I will really watch what I put on the garden ,Thank you!

[@lisakruger5289]

It always amazes me how God can take what the enemy meant for evil, and use it for good! So glad you started your gardening writing/video career!

[@sueyoung2115]

Back a couple of years ago, you did a video about this and a person who is a biologist suggested that a soil microorganism called "lipomyces cononencae" would break down the aminopyralid In your soil.

[@germanbrethren9320]

Let’s hope your post goes viral. Let’s hope that manure sellers will someday be compelled to list the chemicals which were Fed to the cows, and which were sprayed on the cow’s grazing grass. Groceries like Whole Foods can tell us where a salmon grew up, whether he swam free, etc. we should demand the same history of our hay purchase, or our manure purchase, or our compost purchase. Bless you for showing us the way. Laura

[@jennifergriffin3690]

Thanks for making this video. Will check where we get our manure in the future.

[@inndeep7020]

Valuable information 👌. Thank you so much 🙏

[@davidthegood]

Don't destroy your garden! I learned the hard way what happens when you get a load of contaminated manure. We lost $1000 worth of plants and half the growing season! Persistent herbicides like Grazon are no joke, and they can be in hay and manure and even compost. You can even age manure in a pile and the stuff will still come through and kill many of your garden plants! Twisting growth is a sign of it, and weird stunting. That's why we now avoid big ag and compost everything - you can get the book here: amzn.to/3DVvzn8 Subscribe to the newsletter: thesurvivalgardener.us3.list-manage.com/subscribe/post?u=d1c57e318ab24156698c41249&id=1f74a21dc8 Compost Your Enemies t-shirts: www.aardvarktees.com/products/compost-your-enemies Learn more about what Grazon contamination looks like and how to help it: www.thesurvivalgardener.com/dealing-with-grazon-contamination/ Thanks for watching - please subscribe!

[@karen-hillshomestead]

Every time I hear you tell that story it makes me so sad that that happened to you, Scott and everyone else. Keep warning everyone David, they need to know!

[@dr.froghopper6711]

I warned a man today about this. He said he put manure on a lot of his plants last year and they all died. He was shocked to hear about it. I told him that it might, only might, get better year after year if he never does it again. I gave him KZbin searches, including your channel, for JADAM, Korean Natural Farming, Permaculture with Geoff Lawton, New Mexico State University (the local agricultural university) and told him to get busy growing cover crops that have not been sprayed. He can compost those. Only this year have I realized that I need a garden strictly dedicated to growing compost and feeding the soil.

[@rgb5031]

Been there, done that. I HATE paying for 'CRAP', anticipating it to grow me more 10' tomato plants, (like the good old days), and instead it causes them to curl up like 'the wicked witch of the west'!

[@darlaann1610]

I just ordered 2 of your books.

[@JavierFernandez01]

Holy... manure. I've actually been planning on getting some cow pies to break up into the yard. Yikes.

[@carlprice64]

I had a awesome strawberry bed. Produced tons. I bought some hay from the feed store for my laying nest, and threw some into the pet rabbits pen. I didn't think anything about it. Mind you I was aware of AMINOPYRALIDS. Well I decided to scoop up some rabbit manure and tossed it on my strawberries, the strawberries stunted and produced dried fruit basically. It hit me when I saw what had happened to my strawberries. The rabbit ate the hay and now I got AMINOPYRALIDS in my bed. I'm now trying an experiment. I tossed a ton of mustard seed in to see if I might salvage my strawberries. Both are growing together and the strawberries are blooming. Still got to wait and see if that purified the soil. Some of the mustard looks yellowish at this time...

[@davidthegood]

It took a long time for us to clear ours. I grew wheat and corn and when they grew, I yanked them out and threw them away. Also turned in some biochar.

[@carlprice64]

@@davidthegood Mine was a small contamination. But just that little bit ruined last year's strawberries...I can only imagine an entire garden contaminated...

[@debc4788]

This is an interesting subject and I used a store manure and all my peppers died. I feed hay to my rabbits and pellets and wonder about that now for using the manure. And is it in the meat. Hope this subject gets attention.

[@carlprice64]

@@debc4788 Supposibly according to the agriculture gurus the chemical passes through the digestive tract and doesn't get in the meat...

[@Bad_Housekeeping]

Thank you VERY much for the info. Love the shirt, too!

[@debbiem2146]

Excellent information, thank you!

[@RESMITHcarpentry]

This happened to my garden as well about a decade ago! I got a load of screened loam to level out some areas of lawn in the back yard, and used some of it in my potting soil mix. The lawn grew fine, but the potted plants were slow growing and grossly deformed. It took hours of hunting images online to figure out what was wrong. Thankfully it was all in pots so it could be tossed. I used it to level some ruts near the back fence. Grass seemed to grow alright in the soil, but everything else was messed up. Thankfully I can get horse manure from some friends where they pasture graze and get unsprayed feed. I also found a hay farm with unsprayed barley straw. I zillion weeds come up from the horse manure, but I'd rather see strong healthy weeds sprouting everywhere than deformed plants. They often spray desiccants in Canada due to the short growing season and unsprayed straw can be very hard to find. So far so good but I always worry that someone will start spraying or there will be overspray from neighboring farms... it's sad really, what we're doing in agriculture:(

[@ShikokuFoodForest]

Modern agriculture has been a complete disaster and must be terminated if we want to survive on this earth.

[@dr.froghopper6711]

Oh. Man! My garden got hit several years ago, same stuff-bad straw! This year I’m growing my own leafy greens, just for the purpose of making trustworthy biomass. I’m also planting lots of turnips, sugar beets, crimson clover, rye grass,, oats, wheat. I’m trying to regenerate dead desert soil. It’s a challenge to get things to grow but dumping carbon underground is the best way to do this. I have a big amount of biomass on top of the soil that I really should till in for the first and only time. After that, all I want is a good cover crop between my beds and in the beds over winter.

[@davidthegood]

Yes - I agree.

[@jantellfowler5883]

Great video didn't know about that herbicide and how it messes up your garden, thanks alot 👍🏽

[@susanjordan2130]

Thank you David.♥️

[@StrangeQuark100]

Thanks for this video. I recently bought some cheap manure at Walmart and some cheap compost at the city dump. I’m having some second thoughts about both of them. I’ve already used them in the garden so I guess we’ll see what happens…

[@mckaybridges9229]

I would really stay away from municipal compost. All the landscapers and construction waste goes into that. It's like microwave compost if you will.

[@danielsmith336]

Test it by germinating beans in a pot of each. Look for weird growth. Test each bag separately. I spread a total of 10 or 12 bags of manure on my garden beds last year and only one bag out of the bunch (they all came off of one skid) poisoned a bed. My squash and melons looked sick all year then produced a few tiny fruits. I replanted all of my beds to alliums after harvest and that contaminated bed killed most of my shallots. I planted 4lbs of shallots there and maybe 8 plants are alive.

[@Zbee167]

This is important! Thanks for sharing it. I don't have cows, but, I do have chickens. I did buy your book "Compost Everything" a few years ago. I compost ALL of my food scraps! ;-) Question: What could I grow in South Florida (Miami) to create biomass material to use as feed / bedding for my chickens??? Thanks for sharing.

[@davidthegood]

Moringa, sunn hemp, cannas and many grasses, like sorghum/sudan.

[@roseannenorman7129]

@@davidthegood what do you think about the pine chips from tractor supply?

[@KtVogtF]

Thanks so much for this warning, I had no idea! Maybe you saved me the same heartache in the future.

[@FarmerQ]

Wonderful, revealing video!

[@craigjacob3704]

I hope the stuff I buy in the bags at Lowe's and home Depot don't have any chemicals in it !!!

[@davidb2206]

Hope won't save you. Those are exactly what killed my garden. It was even labeled "organic" on the bag.

[@b_uppy]

Great point. Another killer often in manure is dewormer and it will persist in manure and kills earthworms if you are doing vermiculture, gardening... And citrus peels are bad for earthworms, too.

[@svenholmgren5015]

Do you know how long dewormer will be present in the manure?

[@b_uppy]

@@svenholmgren5015 If they used Ivermectin, it breaks down in sunlight according to sone. So running chickens over it to 'rake it'/break it down is pretty useful.

[@DM-lk5ym]

Sounds like Big Chemical has completely ruined our once-best form of natural fertilizer. Dewormer has been around a long time & the animals need it, I wonder how long it stays active once secreted? But a persistent herbicide for farm animal feed? That was Not needed, we have lived A Long Time without it. I think the organic grower movement was hurting Big Chemical business. This is just awful.

[@marymcandrew7667]

I hope David looks into this and replies because I asked the same question. Really curious about workers in manure because they need to be given to animals.

[@svenholmgren5015]

Does anyone know how often it is given to the animals? While I do agree that we don't want it in the manure, if it is once- twice a year, it is not nearly the threat Grazon poses.

[@mitalenfai]

thank you for all good advice

[@BaloosCluesOriginal]

When you did the lecture and I heard you mention this, it hit me like an anvil. I couldn't figure out what was wrong with my peppers. Thank you for bringing this to light.

[@carolavant3778]

I feel your pain! I used to use hay in my chicken coop and composted the litter - Great plan for high nitrogen fertilizer, right? I would also buy truckloads of mushroom compost from a nearby mushroom growing facility. Imagine my sadness at watching my entire 1000 sq ft garden twist, wither and die! It took me over a year to remediate the garden. Last year, I moved to a more sustainable property where I now have a 3500 sq ft garden, and I take great care to not get Grazon contamination again. And you're right, God has a plan, and we've learned some hard lessons. Yes, I now only compost what I know is absolutely safe, and my chicken coop is now full of pine shavings. So sad that we can't trust our agriculture agencies who are supposed to be advocating for us.

[@laraokelley9281]

How did you heal it?