Residue farmers

Nitrate is one of the facts of life. It is essential for the growth of many plant species, including most of those we eat, but it becomes a problem if it gets into water in which it is not wanted. It is perceived mainly as a chemical fertilizer used by farmers, but much of the nitrate found in soil is produced by the microbes that break down plant residues and other nitrogen-containing residues in the soil. There is no difference between nitrate from fertilizer and that produced by microbes, but, whatever its origin, this rather commonplace chemical entity has now become a major environmental problem and is also treated as a health hazard. 

Arable farmers in the UK rarely grow more than one crop in a year, but horticulturalists may grow two or more crops in a year on the same soil, so the question of crop sequences is more intense for them, particularly as Brassica vegetables, such as cabbages and brussel sprouts, can leave large organic as well as mineral nitrogen residues. 

The most important routes of exposure to endosulfan for the general population are ingestion of food and the use of tobacco products with endosulfan residues remaining after treatment. Farmers, pesticide applicators, and individuals living in the vicinity of hazardous waste disposal sites contaminated with endosulfan may receive additional exposure through dermal contact and inhalation. 

Major registrants typically conduct as many residue trials as possible on their own research farms and contract the remainder to independent contract research companies. These contract research companies range in size from those that have several research farms to husband and wife teams with only one site. They also may include independent researchers who do not own a permanent test site but contract small plot test areas from farmers inside commercial production acreage. The goal of these trials is to conduct the smdy in a cropping system environment that represents commercial production systems, thereby ensuring that the raw agriculture commodities harvested represent commercially available commodities. 

Broadly speaking, the most important factors in the safe use of economic poisons are adequate information and appropriate care by all persons having any contact whatsoever with the poisons. Safety may be promoted but not ensured by voluntary control, such as the self-discipline of industry by legal control, such as regulation of sale, labeling, and distribution and by economic control, such as the refusal of food processors to buy from farmers or dealers food containing excessive residues for which no adequate method of decontamination is known. 

New York has experienced a rather widespread breakdown in housefly control with the use of DDT. Schwardt of the Cornell University staff first noticed this failure of DDT in 1948. In 1949 the fly problem was very bad. Farmers, remembering the exceptional control of the past few years with DDT residual sprays, were greatly disturbed when DDT was first withdrawn from use in dairy bar ns because of the danger of DDT contamination in milk. Methoxychlor under conditions in 1949 did not measure up to the performance of DDT in other years neither did DDT. Lindane (gamma isomer of hexachlorocyclo-hexane) has been hailed by many dairymen as the successor to DDT, and by some farmers the question is raised— What is the successor of lindane to be ... 

Waste pesticides and container residues disposed of by farmers on their own land. 

Results may confirm the need for novel policy interventions to more fairly divide the risk reduction burden between US farmers and those growing crops for export to the USA. Recent trends in methamidophos residues in a variety of Mexican produce imported into the USA are particularly worrying, especially in contrast to the solid progress made by US growers in reducing the frequency and mean levels of methamidophos residues in the same foods. 

A rag that a farmer was using was analyzed for pesticide residue. The rag weighed 49.22 g and yielded 25.00 mL of an extract solution that was determined to have a pesticide concentration of 102.5 ppm. How many grams of pesticide were in the rag and what is the concentration of pesticide in the rag in parts per million ... 

Most organic farmers recycle their manures on the farm. Any other manure is likely to be polluted with residues of veterinary products used to treat the animals. If manure from an organic farm is not available, try to source it from pasture-raised herds or less intensive livestock units. You may find local stables that are eager to give away their manure, but do ask when their horses were last wormed. 

The method of container disposal given does not mean final "resting place" in the environment of any of the residual material still in the container. It only indicates vAiat farmers did with the container Initially. 

A farmer, however, disposing of waste pesticides which are hazardous wastes, from his own use, is not required to comply with the RCRA notification or management standards provided he triple rinses each emptied pesticide container and disposes of the pesticide residues on his own farm in a manner consistent with the disposal instructions on the pesticide label. This exemption from the RCRA management controls does not apply, however, to commercial pesticide applicators. 

LAST is used by farmers, veterinarians, and other interested parties to screen urine from cull dairy cows for antibiotic residues before marketing. If the LAST test is positive, the animal is retained for several days and retested before sale, A negative LAST test allows the farmer to market his cull cow with a high degree of confidence that the edible meat, liver, kidney, etc, at slaughter will be antibiotic residue free or below established tolerances,... 

The work of Kimber (3, 1 4, 1 5), on phytotoxicity of plant residues, received comparatively little attention prior to the widespread adoption of reduced cultivation/plant residue retention in Australia during the past decade. Reports by farmers of reduced emergence of crops, often accompanied by chlorosis, were commonly attributed to nitrogen immobilization. Such data as were available related to phytotoxicity from residues of cereal crops. 

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