Bracken for bedding

Agrivator

Member
Dried bracken is more palatable and just as toxic as the fresh plant.

The most sensible thing to do with baled bracken is to burn it and to use the residue as a high potash fertiliser. And to buy a load of sawdust/wood shavings for bedding.
 

wr.

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Breconshire
We've been baling it for 6-7 yrs now, no sign of bracken growing in our fields, all muck being spread on silage/ hay fields
All the bracken( fern we call it) that I know that is baled is on common land, think @wr. bales a bit
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Cowabunga

Member
Location
Ceredigion,Wales
I wouldn't touch it with a barge pole. Not only are the spores carcinogenic and tiny but it is also carcinogenic to animals that might eat it in any form.
On top of which it commonly harbours ticks, many of which carry the debilitating and sometimes fatal Lyme Disease. Ignore these risks at your peril.
 

Hfd Cattle

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Hereford
I wouldn't touch it with a barge pole. Not only are the spores carcinogenic and tiny but it is also carcinogenic to animals that might eat it in any form.
On top of which it commonly harbours ticks, many of which carry the debilitating and sometimes fatal Lyme Disease. Ignore these risks at your peril.
I was always told that bracken carried a cancer risk . Father would never use it for that reason .......
 

Tubbylew

Member
Location
Herefordshire
The old timers here used to cut it and haul it with a horsedrawn sledge, apparantly it's reasonable bedding for sheep as it doesn't get stuck in their feet. I think my uncle may still bale a bit, but he's more of a mountain man than I. I think braken is the main cause of "red water" in cattle, but I may be mistaken.
 

exmoor dave

Member
Location
exmoor, uk
The old timers here used to cut it and haul it with a horsedrawn sledge, apparantly it's reasonable bedding for sheep as it doesn't get stuck in their feet. I think my uncle may still bale a bit, but he's more of a mountain man than I. I think braken is the main cause of "red water" in cattle, but I may be mistaken.


Red water is caused by ticks..... which are often in high numbers in bracken
 

Agrivator

Member
The old timers here used to cut it and haul it with a horsedrawn sledge, apparantly it's reasonable bedding for sheep as it doesn't get stuck in their feet. I think my uncle may still bale a bit, but he's more of a mountain man than I. I think braken is the main cause of "red water" in cattle, but I may be mistaken.

The tick that transmits Redwater thrives on Bracken-infested land.
 

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As reported in Independent


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