Time to ban glyphosate?

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Sailabee

BOP Club
1,238
1,296
North Auckland
Experience
Hobbyist
I went to a one dayer on glyphosate run by FAR - Foundation for Arable Research about 5 years ago, and they said that the most important thing in using glyphosate is to never increase the strength of dilution in the used product. In many countries, they kept doubling the strength, effectively rendering it useless. They quoted Thailand and surrounding countries where up to 16 times our dilution rate now kills very little. The message was 'more is not better'.
 

Grant

Staff member
Founder Member
Platinum
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4,941
Far North environmental groups are urging members to sign up to a Far North District Council no-spray register ahead of the next round of roadside spraying.

The use of herbicides on roadside weeds has been a hot topic since a spraying operation late last year, funded by the government's Covid-19 recovery programme.

 
1,150
1,076
great barrier island
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Semi Commercial
i asked about this today.
about 2/3rds of ours its been detected and its all within 0.01 and 0.02. (detectable limit is 0.01)
not much of a surprise considering our area. we don't have large bush areas.

tho it would be interesting to see what happens with a lot of the planted manuka sites as they are often on working farms.
edit: it would be interesting to go test organic honey. i bet a lot of "organic" honey has it to.
we had our first harvest tested and it showed no detectable glyphosate. we kinda figured that’s the result we should get but it’s good to see it in the results sheet .
 
5
11
Mauku
Experience
Hobbyist
we had our first harvest tested and it showed no detectable glyphosate. we kinda figured that’s the result we should get but it’s good to see it in the results sheet .
Nikki that is what I would expect from Great Barrier honey. I assume you do not transfer hives from the mainland. Your lovely island is not a location of intensive cropping.
 
1,311
1,791
North Canterbury
Experience
Commercial
Had our first Manuka test results in, <0.010 pretty much as expected since the chopper was held off til the honey was pulled.. have 140 odd hives in the spray zone which got hit on Tuesday.. haven’t been in these hives since then but with the amount of Catsear flowering on the hill faces that got sprayed there’s no doubt it’s made it inside..
the white honey they have on board now is for wintering so won’t be extracted and tested but sure would be interesting to know.. especially seeing the chopper at work while bees were foraging.
 
1,150
1,076
great barrier island
Experience
Semi Commercial
Nikki that is what I would expect from Great Barrier honey. I assume you do not transfer hives from the mainland. Your lovely island is not a location of intensive cropping.
yeah, you’re right but we are close to the airport and council were using sprays on the roadside. fortunately our local board put their foot down with the council and agreed to pay more for organic road side treatments. it’s still a relief to have those test results back up what we expected.
 
5,764
6,323
canterbury
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Commercial
Hmmm .... It's a two edged sword .
We don't use glyphosate in our farming operation.
Hill billies at the end of the gully, we watch with interest as our neighbours spray the goodies out of their paddocks, continually regrassing with two year grasses and clover running a high input high output operation.
The other day the BossMan confided with me that there was probably no point in putting bees on their place this year as there wasn't a lot of clover.
We watch as they grow high sugar grasses and the lambs scour ..... we watch with interest as the paddocks are meticulously clean of weeds ....
I dunno . On our side of the road we have clover for Africa. We have Cali thistles that mine the elements from deep under Mother Earth ... and we have a soil structure with clover nodules and worms and bacteria.
We have a low input system ..... are not one of the top performing farms, but at the end of the day it's what drops out the bottom ..... and that drop out has sustained a money losing bee operation for three and a half years now.

Glyphosate .... it's all about whether you want to leave a life-style for the next generation, or a dustbowl.
 

kaihoka

Gold
328
270
whanganui inlet
Experience
Hobbyist
In our area we occasionally see a person from the council spot spraying rawort.
But the road edges in golden bay are mowed.
The mower man comes out here about 4 times a yr.
Every time any rd side spraying happens someone kicks up a big stink.
 

Sailabee

BOP Club
1,238
1,296
North Auckland
Experience
Hobbyist
In our area we occasionally see a person from the council spot spraying rawort.
But the road edges in golden bay are mowed.
The mower man comes out here about 4 times a yr.
Every time any rd side spraying happens someone kicks up a big stink.
Have a beek friend who was in roading who tells me that when the motorway past my place was finished, the erk in charge refused to use the prescribed grass types that only grow 200 mm high max, so they do not need mowing, used his own choice, and it takes two trucks of winking and blinking glory to warn traffic, plus the man on a mower very regularly. Each truck cost over $1000/hour ten years ago, so goodness only knows what it is now - and this is why Auckland is broke, owing well over a billion, but refuses to declare bankruptcy.
 
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kaihoka

Gold
328
270
whanganui inlet
Experience
Hobbyist
Have a beek friend who was in roading who tells me that when the motorway past my place was finished, the erk in charge refused to use the prescribed grass types that only grow 200 mm high max, so they do not need mowing, used his own choice, and it takes two trucks of winking and blinking glory to warn traffic, plus the man on a mower very regularly. Each truck cost over $1000/hour ten years ago, so goodness only knows what it is now - and this is why Auckland is broke, owing well over a billion, but refuses to declare bankruptcy.
I am very pleased to see the mower man .
He mows my driveway when he is here .
I just pay him for his time on my drive not for travel here .
Saves me having to spray my drive .
 
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8,866
5,295
maungaturoto
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Commercial
For those who are regularly testing honey, would you be able to share a copy of your lab test data results with the Apiculture NZ Science & research Focus Group. We could use this to gather information of the extent of the problem in NZ honey.
Love to hear from you.
some results boss mentioned today. the orchards where we keep some hives all year round, and they spray with everything including roundup. plus there is many houses and it backs onto farmland. i would assume glyphosate is used fairly constantly, yet no residue detected.
its the one place we thought it would fail by a large amount, yet nothing. big surprise.
 
1,311
1,791
North Canterbury
Experience
Commercial
Last results in today this site is next to a large forestry block recently harvested, the chopper has sprayed the block prior to re planting. There is no pastureland in range of these bees.

C55EF083-D0F5-4440-933F-8848E41B79E0.jpeg
 
445
327
Mid Canterbury
Experience
Semi Commercial
Last results in today this site is next to a large forestry block recently harvested, the chopper has sprayed the block prior to re planting. There is no pastureland in range of these bees.
That v sad Stoners. Can't do a sad emoji, cos I don't know where to find it.
 
5,764
6,323
canterbury
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Commercial
What sort of honey mate .... we had similar the other year..... chopper spraying prior to replanting during the day as bees were flying through the drift to the Dew.
We had a Mexican standoff at the gate with the contractors in which the language became very colourful.

The outcome was the Forestry owners now warn us when they are spraying.
 
1,311
1,791
North Canterbury
Experience
Commercial
What sort of honey mate .... we had similar the other year..... chopper spraying prior to replanting during the day as bees were flying through the drift to the Dew.
We had a Mexican standoff at the gate with the contractors in which the language became very colourful.

The outcome was the Forestry owners now warn us when they are spraying.
Wish it was Dew.. which is now dripping from the Beech with barely a single wasp to be seen following last years feed of laced rabbits 😎 very cool.
Manuka honey bee boss.. I’ll be calling Jaco tomorrow..
 
5,764
6,323
canterbury
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Commercial
Good idea .... Jaco has been good on the communication after our melt down ! It never ceases to amaze me how many ignorant people are still out there.
 
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