Hay & Ragwort

[D.S.S18]

had 3 acre cut during the good weather, quite a bit of ragwort in amongst it, aimed of shredding back onto the field,
after discussions with the landlord, he wants it feeding back onto the land as he says its safe for sheep to eat when dead - i'm not too keen,

any comments welcome, it is totally dead in the bale now.

 

[KMA]

I wouldn't say it's ever safe for stock to eat, it just becomes more attractive after it's cut then unpalatable once it's dried out. Old cast ewes are handy for clearing it up as they're in a kebab before the alkaloid toxin really kicks in to destroy the liver.

I think some folk think it's safe because there can be a fair delay between a ruminant eating the ragwort (weeks/months) and keeling over therefore they may not have make the connection unless they bother enough to have a PM done.

 

[tinsheet]

Definitely don't feed it!
Can graze it when it's just poking out the ground, so I've been told!,
We always pull it and burn the stuff, shame some neighbours don't

 

[D.S.S18]

thank you

 

[Fallowfield]

Don't think ragwort looses its poisonous effect when it dies.

Though sheep do seem to have some immunity.

Why risk it?


https://www.gov.je/sitecollectiondo...eener living/id ragwortpoisoningukleaflet.pdf

 

[Exfarmer]

Ragwort is unpalatable when green however dead it loses this bitterness , but it does not lose the alkaloid, do not ever feed it as hay!
Sheep are not resistant in any shape or form it has been shown many times that sheep will lose liver function after ingesting small amounts. they will be unwilling to eat any large amount unless they take it ins hay

 

[puppet]

It is a biennial so if cut again next year then a chance it will start to disappear.
Is the landlord suggesting you pick out the ragwort and put it back. That would just be daft and dangerous.
Sheep will eat the leaves early on which has cleared any pockets on our farm. The rest we pulledvwhen ripe

 

[milkloss]

It is a biennial so if cut again next year then a chance it will start to disappear.
Is the landlord suggesting you pick out the ragwort and put it back. That would just be daft and dangerous.
Sheep will eat the leaves early on which has cleared any pockets on our farm. The rest we pulledvwhen ripe

It’s biennial so if it’s cut it just tries again next year. First year growth, second year run to seed and die. If it doesn’t run to seed it just tries again and is why topping never killed ragwort.

Sheep will eat the heart out of the rosette and kill it with no ill effects. Some people use cull ewes to do this just in case but we haven’t had a problem with any sheep. This obviously has to happen in spring before the plant boots up.

 

[Goweresque]

It is a biennial so if cut again next year then a chance it will start to disappear.
Is the landlord suggesting you pick out the ragwort and put it back. That would just be daft and dangerous.
Sheep will eat the leaves early on which has cleared any pockets on our farm. The rest we pulledvwhen ripe

Thats not correct, ragwort is biennial, and if left untouched will die once it has produced its seeds, but if you cut it during the seedhead season (ie when its producing the tall stem with the yellow flowers) it won't die, and will regrow stronger the next year, and any subsequent years, if cut again. So the very worst thing you can do to a ragwort infested field is keep cutting it annually, it just makes the existing plants more vigorous, and spreads seeds everywhere to generate more seedlings.

Edit: beaten to it!

 

[puppet]

Stand corrected but my experience has been that if cut before seeding it starts to disappear. At one time we used an old direct chop harvester and blew it into trailers to clear fields that were like a forest. Seemed to work.

 

[honeyend]

I seemed to have spent most of my adult life removing ragwort and had a tame plant that I used to abuse just to see the effect it had. Mowing does nothing to normal ragwort, it just makes a bigger and if then left healthier plant.
Marsh ragwort if you mow before flowering mows it out, we had a fair bit and just topped at the right time. In a normal year they will usually eat the new grass growth over the shrivelled brown its when it dries out, they will not even eat the dry topped grass if you leave it a week.
http://www.floodplainmeadows.org.uk...s/files/Marsh Ragworth Trial RSPB Leaflet.pdf
I have used a flame thrower on ragwort, with no result. The best result was a combined spray and then I hand pull odd bits when it flowers to clear the edges up. A few sheep that were going for the pot any way certainly controlled it.
I would say its to late to top now unless you cut and wrap in plastic and then burn the stuff, the heads are starting to set seed now. I tried putting so hand pulled through a shredder and you could see the heads floating in the air.

 

[steveR]

Topping timing depends on machine. and plany stage. If flowering, a flail pulverises up the whole plant and it will struggle to produce a viable seed head I find... I have used a full rate of 2,4, D late on and then flailed off the growth. The combo of the chemical and the chopping did an excellent job on some paddocks where they had a big problem.

I am trying as an experiment ,wiping my ragwort where pulling is a real struggle because of hard ground. I discussed the idea of a Roundup saturated fleece glove to wipe the product on last year, and am giving it a whirl on a few plants. Using some mix out of the Herbiwipe. 50/50 mix as recommended.

After 48 hours, the plants are dying back really well, and it will hopefully take out the whole plant to the root...

 

[Dog Bowl]

Big dairy farm near me are very short on grub. They have cut 150 acres of Arable Reversion type grassland that was riddled with ragwort - the foreman said they are going to feed this to the young stock and milkers. Made it all into hay.

Isn’t this a big risk or am I missing something here?

 

[steveR]

Big dairy farm near me are very short on grub. They have cut 150 acres of Arable Reversion type grassland that was riddled with ragwort - the foreman said they are going to feed this to the young stock and milkers. Made it all into hay.

Isn’t this a big risk or am I missing something here?

Sounds bonkers to me....

But of course, according to the bunny huggers, Ragwort is a harmless plant that provides a wonderful resource for butterflies and moths....

 

[GordonRS]

My late father would constantly go on about how bad it is especially after it had died making it more dangerous. We often had to walk/drive through the fields making sure we pulled it all out including the roots. A job we hated but after seeing our fields without for a few years was quite satisfying

 

[Muck Spreader]

Sounds bonkers to me....

But of course, according to the bunny huggers, Ragwort is a harmless plant that provides a wonderful resource for butterflies and moths....

The French farmers around here never seem that bothered about it, and think I am odd walking about the hay fields collecting it. Often wondered if certain breeds of animal are more tolerant to it, or simply the fact they tend to cull at younger ages, but maybe French ragwort is just less toxic.

 

[bobk]

The French farmers around here never see.m that bothered about it, and think I am odd walking about the hay fields collecting it. Often wondered if certain breeds of animal are more tolerant to it, or simply the fact they tend to cull at younger ages, but maybe French ragwort is just less toxic.

It's an old wives tale spread by neurotic horse owners , they have eat tons of it

Saying that we have zero tolerance of the shite .

 

[Still Farming]

Plenty of horses die every year with it.
Worst in hay when dried.
Toxicity builts up in system and kill em.
Harder to pull out in hay when dried.
Burn it best .

 

[Loftyrules]

Be careful pulling it by hand as it will get into your blood stream through your skin

 

[Osca]

It's an old wives tale spread by neurotic horse owners , they have eat tons of it

A friend of mine moved her horse to a smart livery yard. She had bred and backed this mare herself; lovely young animal. That year the yard's hay had some ragwort in it but since the yard had such a good reputation, she thought they obviously knew what they were doing and that it would be OK. It wasn't. Her horse died of ragwort poisoning.

Having said that, it is harmless enough to horses while its growing (just because they don't like the taste) and there is some truth in the neurosis theory, due to basically falsified figures in a survey done by - I think - the British Horse Society where they grossly over-estimated deaths from ragwort to the extent that the fields would be strewn with dead horses had they been correct. However it is lethal in hay as the bad taste vanishes.

I have seen sheep eating the young plants by choice, though, selecting them deliberately even though there was plenty of grass, and I knew one guy who controlled it in his fields by keeping sheep. It put me right off lamb's liver until I learnt that the damage accumulates in the liver, rather than the actual poison.