I'm sure there are those of you out there who are sick and tired of all the coverage we've given the campaign to keep metaldehyde slug pellets out of water in recent months. But we make no apologies. Metaldehyde is a crucial active ingredient for slug control and to lose it would be be very costly to many growers.

And now is the time for the talking to stop and the real action to start. It is this autumn that farmers have to prove they can keep metaldehyde out of water.

Which is why Farmers Weekly has teamed up with the Metaldehyde Stewardship Group to provide you with an opportunity to ask MSG experts key pelleting questions and catch up with the latest advice.

Each day from Friday 4 September, Colin Myram (a leading East Anglian agronomist) and Paul Fogg (one of the industry's foremost slug control specialists) will answer your queries and provide the latest topical advice.

The forum is yours - why not put a challenge to them now...

Mike Abram - Arable Deputy Editor:

It is this autumn that farmers have to prove they can keep metaldehyde out of water.

They can do. They can use a more accurate method of pelleting - an Autocast unit bolted onto your set of rolls means you can apply up to the field edge.

Continuing to broadcast means some product will go in a ditch. Thats pretty obvious and inescapable. Use Draza or Sluggo around the headland.

I think you will find all slug pellets have either a warning on their labels to keep pellets out of water, or have a buffer zone restriction on headlands, and this includes Draza, Sluggo and Sluxx and metaldehyde so it is best to observe the 5 metre no spread zone against water courses with all slug pelletsto be safe.

If you read the Draza product label or ANY methiocarb label the buffer zone is 6 METRES not 5 metres for these products

Any spinning disk method of application has a bias spreading the pellets more to one side than the other if not calibrated correctly, so which direction do you travel round the field on the headland spreading pellets? clockwise or anti clockwise? Answer will depend on if the applicator is spreading infront of you, ie front mounted or behind you if you have not corrected the bias.

Have you checked how far the pellets are being thrown, I guarantee its more than you think

Quite right, eko, the buffer zone for methiocarb is for protection against arthropods and not specifically water - I stand corrected!

In the eastern counties the recent rain in some areas has allowed rape drilling to continue apace and rolling should help the slug control. Apart from checking how far the spread is on both sides and behind, or in front, don't forget wind will affect the spread. However if conditions allow apply pellets as soon as possible after drilling as this not only protects emergence but may reduce the need for follow-up treatments as seen drmatically last year.

mrslug:

I think you will find all slug pellets have either a warning on their labels to keep pellets out of water, or have a buffer zone restriction on headlands, and this includes Draza, Sluggo and Sluxx and metaldehyde so it is best to observe the 5 metre no spread zone against water courses with all slug pelletsto be safe.

Quite a useless warning as we have already noted that an application with a spinning disc is likely to throw the product much beyond the distance it is supposed to be working. Label statements saying dont put it in the water are therefore quite stupid - they know how the product is applied, and that some will get in.

Perhaps then it is the method of application that we need to be considering - 12m pnumatic fert spreaders can be bought for peanuts at farm sales and they can apply pellets with very high accuracy. 5/6m no spread areas are not enough really, although new ATV spreaders seem to have adjustable throw angles, so you can drive around the headland and just throw into the field, which seems quite handy.

Many subsoiler-type drills can be fitted with dual hoppers for well placed pelleting.

So forget the differing products, and too-narrow buffer zones, and just ban spinning disc applications.

All equipment used at work must be fit for purpose and only used for that purpose, poeple must also be trained to use that specific piece of equipment. All equipment used at work must also be maintained and operators updated

Applying any material right up to the edge of the field with any type of applicator will not stop run off of active if heavy rain occurs or errosion of soil on hilly ground, the reason for the buffer zones, the run off being either dissolved active or the pellets themselves.

Sluxx and Sluggo are insoluble in water and also breakdown to natural components anyway, the problem with metaldehybe is that it cannot be removed from the water so the polluted water must be mixed with a non polluted water to take it down to 'an acceptable' level

Prevention is better than cure and cheaper too, it also prevents prosecution, the legislation has been in force for 30 years

 

EKO

 

 

 

Again,eko, you are quite right but I think growers should be aware of the patent for ferric phosphate in that on its own it does not kill slugs! It has to be formulated with an activator chemical to make it work so it is not just ferric phospate in the pellet. Perhaps that is another reason to keep it out of water as stated on the label. The breakdown of metaldehyde in the soil is by microbes, also to natural products namely, water and carbon dioxide; but we must keep it out of water and in the soil for this to happen.