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Prosecutions possible over black grass contamination by Hugh de Lacy
PGG Wrightson Seeds is yet to find out if it will be prosecuted for spilling prohibited black grass seed along the highway between Ashburton and Methven earlier this month, but is likely to be asked to meet some of the clean-up costs. The company notified the Ministry of Primary Industries (MPI) immediately upon discovering that about 28kg of imported fescue seed earlier found to be contaminated with black grass (Alopecurus myosuiroides) had blown off the back of a truck. The fescue had been certified as being free of contamination when it was exported from Denmark, but routine checks by quarantine officials at the New Zealand border established it contained black grass seeds. MPI ordered the 16.3 tonne consignment be sent to Methven to be cleaned, and it was on that 30km journey on an uncovered truck that seed was sucked out of the loose-lidded bins that contained it.
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Cultivation
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September 2013
Black grass is “a very bad weed of crops, particularly cereal crops in the United Kingdom, and has been reported as a weed in other parts of the world,” Dr Trevor James, senior scientist at AgResearch, told Canterbury Farming. It was incorrectly named in the daily media as meadow foxtail, and although from the same Alopecurus species, “It is different to what we call meadow foxtail in New
Zealand,” James said. Black grass is thought to have been found in New Zealand before, but never established, though three other perennial species of the same genus — orange foxtail (A. aequalis), true meadow foxtail (A. pratensis) and kneed foxtail (A. geniculatus) — are relatively common. “Black grass, as an annual, could become a weed when establishing new pastures as a component of a rotational cropping system,” James said. “Like any other annual grass weed it would not be expected to be competitive in a strong perennial ryegrass-based sward. “Similarly, it would not be expected to become a weed of pastures outside of areas which are regularly cropped.” The manager of PGGW Seeds, John McKenzie, acknowledged the company’s responsibility for the escape of the contaminated seed. “The permit we had was to shift the seed in a covered vehicle. “The employee deemed that the type of container we used to transport the seed in amounted to it being covered, but that didn’t meet the specific terms of the permit.
“So that was our breakdown, and when you look back there’s a very good reason why these permits are accessed with these terms,” McKenzie told Canterbury Farming. MPI response manager David Yard acknowledged PGGW Seed’s quick reporting of the contamination. “They’ve been fully cooperative,” Yard said. Quarantine officers had detected the contamination five days after the consignment of fescue arrived at Lyttelton on May 5, intended for onmarketing under PGGW Seeds’ amenity seeds supply business. “We served a BioSecurity Authority Clearance Certificate on the importer, and it was instructed to take the consignment for seed-dressing,” Yard said. “There are many variants, not least the question of homologous distribution throughout the consignment, but our best estimate is that approximately 2,100 black grass seeds — an egg-cupful — was lost. The seeds were largely immature — in the tests we’ve done it’s about 5% viability.” Taking into account factors such as the germination rate,
Trevor James from AgResearch
viability and competition, Yard said MPI expected only about three or four black grass plants were likely to grow this year, “and only one or two the year after.” Working collaboratively with PGGFW Seeds, Federated Farmers, the Federation for Arable Research, local authorities and the New Zealand Grain and Seed Association, MPI had come up with a monitoring and eradication programme that was to be put to the ministry’s Response Strategic Leadership Team for approval this month. Yard said it involved a combination of spraying the grass verges along the route with selective herbicide to kill any black grass seeds that
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germinate, coupled with rounds of intensive surveillance. “This will occur through several rounds this season and next season, and particularly in the year after, and then we’ll reevaluate it.” An investigation into the release of contaminated seed was continuing, and Yard could not say whether it would result in PGGW Seeds being prosecuted. “But I can say we’ll be looking into the potential for cost recovery.” He added that farmers need have no fear of more black grass seeds escaping in the waste from the seed-dresser, because it was all returned to the original consignment which will be shipped back to Denmark.