Ulster Farmers’ Union President Harry Sinclair has welcomed the successful emergency authorisation application by the Bracken Control Group (BCG), which the Union was involved in, that will allow hill farmers to use the bracken control product, Asulam from 1 July 2013 to 31 October 2013.
The BCG submitted an application for emergency authorisation following the EU’s ban of Asulam that came into effect on 31 December 2011.
Harry Sinclair said; “The successful emergency application by the BCG will allow the areal application of the herbicide, Asulam to be used in 2013 period. This will bring some relief to hill farmers here in Northern Ireland but more will need to be done to help them tackle the long term problem of bracken on their land.”
Given that Asulam is currently the only safe and effective large-scale bracken control product, it is essential that work continues to securing the same relief for 2014, until Asulam products can be registered again in the UK. In the meantime the UFU would like to encourage those wishing to use Asulam to contact their aerial sprayers as soon as possible.
