Ragwort control

[Big Mr C]

Hi everyone I work on a stud farm in Norfolk. We have areas of grassland for grazing for horses. As it't on Breckland the soil is very light, not ideal for grass but ideal for ragwort. Does anybody know what spray we can use to control the ragwort. Leaving the horses out of the field for a few weeks is not a problem. We have tried a few with limited success. Thanks for any advice. Big Mr C

 

[CornishTone]

What have you already tried?

It's a b#gger to control at the best of times. If it's not a big area, pull it, bag it and burn it!

 

[Exfarmer]

Hi everyone I work on a stud farm in Norfolk. We have areas of grassland for grazing for horses. As it't on Breckland the soil is very light, not ideal for grass but ideal for ragwort. Does anybody know what spray we can use to control the ragwort. Leaving the horses out of the field for a few weeks is not a problem. We have tried a few with limited success. Thanks for any advice. Big Mr C

Give Hutchisons a ring at Harling, if they don’t know nobody will

 

[RAF]

Forefront

 

[spark plug]

Another vote for Forefront, I’ve got a field that looked like I was trying to grow a crop of the stuff. Got it sprayed and sorted 99% out, now just keep on top of the odd regrown with the knapsack and Grazon.

 

[Highland Mule]

&

 

[Two Tone]

Forefront T is the product to use against Ragwort.

BUT whatever you do, do not sell or give any of your horse muck to any gardeners. The Forefront won’t hurt your horses in any way. However, there will be minute trace residues of it in their droppings that will kill all sorts of plants, including Roses which gardeners won’t thank you for!

 

[Highland Mule]

Forefront T is the product to use against Ragwort.

BUT whatever you do, do not sell or give any of your horse muck to any gardeners. The Forefront won’t hurt your horses in any way. However, there will be minute trace residues of it in their droppings that will kill all sorts of plants, including Roses which gardeners won’t thank you for!

You really think you can trust a livery yard to do the right thing like that? My experiences with horse owners is that the majority are lazy sods who care not for anything but the status of owning a horse - sure there are some exceptions, but that's my experience of the majority - and seems born out by plenty of anecdotes on here too.

Just pull the damn plants out and put them in a bag. It's not difficult, and if the OP is too lazy to do it themselves then they can employ someone else to do it. It will be cheaper, less environmentally damaging and avoid any chemical residues too. Stick a picture up on the facebook page and say it's better than spraying and you'll get a few brownie points from the horse owners too.

 

[steveR]

I used to spray pony paddocks all over the WM and Borders until horsey owners finally got to my head....! Just too much travel for too much hassle

2,4D is the active ingredient you need. Depitox is what I have in store at present, loads of names for the stuff!! Cheap and cheerful AND works. Forefront also works but is pricey in comparison I feel.... I was shocked when I realised quite how much it was, when I had it "recommended" for use in a solar farm!!!

Ragwort should be sprayed at rosette stage in the Spring (too late now really) with animals removed for (I think 2-3 weeks) then if you can, spray again in the Autumn and take out any new arrivals before winter. Then spray the rosettes again in the Spring. This plan will remove even massive infestations, and make it manageable with hand pulling afterwards.

I have sprayed (and killed) big ragwort which was then pulled so as to remove anything the horses would eat. I also had some success on a couple of occassions near a motorway with late spraying, and then flail topping in hot weather and the debris just faded away in the heat, I think they may have harrowed the one lot as well, to move the muck about, and that helped with the breaking down process too.

 

[steveR]

You really think you can trust a livery yard to do the right thing like that? My experiences with horse owners is that the majority are lazy sods who care not for anything but the status of owning a horse - sure there are some exceptions, but that's my experience of the majority - and seems born out by plenty of anecdotes on here too.

Just pull the damn plants out and put them in a bag. It's not difficult, and if the OP is too lazy to do it themselves then they can employ someone else to do it. It will be cheaper, less environmentally damaging and avoid any chemical residues too. Stick a picture up on the facebook page and say it's better than spraying and you'll get a few brownie points from the horse owners too.

I have no idea how much ragwort the OP has, but I have seen fields of the stuff that looked like a commercial crop. Flail or Spray was realistically the only answer there! I flailed it to stop windblow of the seeds.

The NT, in a fit of environmental enthusiasm got hold of a mechanical trailed ragwort puller as they could not find enough Volunteers to pull by hand (what a surprise!), I was going to go and have a look at in action, but I was told it was found not to work in anything other than closely cropped grass land with light ragwort infestation. Shame, as it sounded a potential earner I thought...

 

[Highland Mule]

I have no idea how much ragwort the OP has, but I have seen fields of the stuff that looked like a commercial crop. Flail or Spray was realistically the only answer there! I flailed it to stop windblow of the seeds.

The NT, in a fit of environmental enthusiasm got hold of a mechanical trailed ragwort puller as they could not find enough Volunteers to pull by hand (what a surprise!), I was going to go and have a look at in action, but I was told it was found not to work in anything other than closely cropped grass land with light ragwort infestation. Shame, as it sounded a potential earner I thought...

We're gonna need a bigger binbag......

 

[Two Tone]

I’ve found that 24D will work, provided you use enough of it and you will probably still need to do it twice in 3 weeks to get it all. Forefront is a one off solution that will last.

I know the sort of Breckland soils that Big Mr C is on and Forefront is what I’d definitely want to use there.

Its Roses problem was mentioned on Gardners Question Time and there were licensing issues because of the horse droppings being used in gardens. At one stage, only Devon and Cornwall CC’s were allowed to use it on their roadside verges.

 

[deleted user 837354]

Don't use forefront or anything containing clopyralid in a horse situation.

Stick with Thrust.

 

[CornishTone]

Forefront T is the product to use against Ragwort.

BUT whatever you do, do not sell or give any of your horse muck to any gardeners. The Forefront won’t hurt your horses in any way. However, there will be minute trace residues of it in their droppings that will kill all sorts of plants, including Roses which gardeners won’t thank you for!

Which is why I didn't suggest it and why it was taken off the market and brought back with a different label/stewardship in the first place. Best to keep Forefront in professional hands and keep it as a useful product.

We probably need to understand how bad the problem is but, once it's flowered, pull it. If the OP is determined to spray use a 2,4D product at rosette stage.

 

[Goweresque]

Forefront T is the product to use against Ragwort.

BUT whatever you do, do not sell or give any of your horse muck to any gardeners. The Forefront won’t hurt your horses in any way. However, there will be minute trace residues of it in their droppings that will kill all sorts of plants, including Roses which gardeners won’t thank you for!

Forefront is not authorised for use on grassland that are grazed by horses. Its only for sheep and cattle grazing land.

Forefront T - Dow AgroSciences Herbicides

aminopyralid · triclopyr

agrobaseapp.com

 

[Goweresque]

To the OP - there is no magic bullet herbicide for ragwort, the only thing that gets rid of it consistently is pulling and burning it.

 

[milkloss]

I'm going to say it!

put some sheep on it in the spring. The horses won't get laminitis and die as a bonus.

 

[Derrick Hughes]

And after reading all that no one told you the obvious. But the are still learning most of them
Weed Wipe with Roundup

 

[Derrick Hughes]

Stuck in the office needing a boat . Who ordered rain. Go for Cod and Chips next time

 

[vulcan]

we used a mixture of depitox and think the other was agritox or something like that did the trick last year out of interest how long should you keep cattle out for after spraying?