Advice for friend - topped field with ragwort

[Hayfields]

A friend has arranged to take on a field (for horses), it was overgrown so today they had it topped - is there any way to remove the cuttings that don't involve baling? There were a lot of weeds and sadly some ragwort so it can't really be left, it's about 8 acres....

 

[Derrick Hughes]

A friend has arranged to take on a field (for horses), it was overgrown so today they had it topped - is there any way to remove the cuttings that don't involve baling? There were a lot of weeds and sadly some ragwort so it can't really be left, it's about 8 acres....

Tine harrow would drag them to the headlands

 

[Nearly]

Rake it into big rows and then bale without adding net / string. Dump in corner of field and burn.
££

row them up and chop them into trailer with forage harvester.
££
Effectively they've stopped it seeding but fecked it for the year.

Spray it in a month?

@JLTate

 

[milkloss]

Depended how bad it is. Sounds like the topper didn’t mulch it particularly well so I’d either go over it again with a decent mulching topper again so it breaks down to nothing quicker or just play the waiting game until breaks down as it is. Ragwort will usually dry and smash up and disappear pretty quick.

 

[sticky]

If they had left it the horses wouldn’t have touched it and they could have pulled it. But now when it dries it will become palatable to the horses and so they need to rake it and clear it somehow. Imo.

 

[spin cycle]

better to use a hay mower tbh....leaves a swath and cuts closer to ground .....it's easier to Bale or rake up that way

a flail mower collector is possibly a good alternative which is what I aspire to

 

[Hayfields]

Thanks - seems like baling then leaving to rot down in an unused corner may be the only option, I think if mulched and left there's a risk of the horses eating the dried ragwort, an annoying situation as the contractor didn't mention the ragwort issue before they cut it

 

[agrotron]

Thanks - seems like baling then leaving to rot down in an unused corner may be the only option, I think if mulched and left there's a risk of the horses eating the dried ragwort, an annoying situation as the contractor didn't mention the ragwort issue before they cut it

Not really the contractors job to mention the ragwort. Presume their job was just to top it which they have done.

 

[Dry Rot]

Sadly, it will just shoot again from what's left. Get the contractor to spray it in the autumn when in the rosette stage, then again in the spring. Some horrses can become addicted to ragwort. Allegedly.

 

[Man_in_black]

But now when it dries it will become palatable to the horses

And more toxic

 

[Nearly]

Some horrses can become addicted to ragwort. Allegedly.

Not for long?

 

[Dry Rot]

Not for long?

A slow death due to liver collapse so not an easy one to diagnose, so they tell me.

 

[Hayfields]

Thanks for the replies, I think they're going to get it all raked into a far corner with a tractor and fence it off!!

 

[czechmate]

Thanks for the replies, I think they're going to get it all raked into a far corner with a tractor and fence it off!!

How would they take an 8 acre field to one side?