Ragwort in silage bales

crashbox

Member
Livestock Farmer
Thoughts please?

Got a field with beautiful ryegrass and clover, but plenty of ragwort...

Would be for low yielding dairy cows.

TIA
 

crashbox

Member
Livestock Farmer
Good idea 👍
As above, pull it. If its really a lot of ragwort we did a field by cutting a swathe round the outside and one swathe every 100ft across the field, we then pulled the ragwort and dumped it onto the swathes. These were baled and dumped when we cut the rest of the fi
 

steveR

Member
Mixed Farmer
As above, pull it. If its really a lot of ragwort we did a field by cutting a swathe round the outside and one swathe every 100ft across the field, we then pulled the ragwort and dumped it onto the swathes. These were baled and dumped when we cut the rest of the field.

Years ago, I used to cut a field near us for hay in June that always had a crop of ragwort. Not allowed to spray, so I used to mow it, then collect the cut ragwort stems and dump them in the hedge bottoms to rot down. After 2-3 years, I finally got on top of the problem...

It went on to grow a crop of 4/5 bedroom houses. I preferred the ragwort as a neighbour TBH!
 

Horn&corn

Member
Our vet recons ragwort doesn’t affect milkers too much. We’ve got a few bad fields on rented ground but he felt it’s a tiny amount compared to overall intakes
 

som farmer

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
somerset
No way feed it Lethal stuff
cleared this farm of ragwort when we started keeping sheep, amazing, sheep went 10 years ago, and still don't get much.
Cousin has a gang come in every year, to pull it, on a lot of steep banks, but it comes back every year. Used to pull trailer loads of the stuff when younger.. the longer name for it, started with the letter F.
 

Jdunn55

Member
Ragwort is highly poisonous to cattle by all accounts and it is cumulative. The more they eat, the more they kill their livers. Unfortunately harvested ragwort is more palatable to cows than ones growing fresh. If you want to avoid animals that don’t ‘do’ with a few literal dead-losses, ask yourself ‘do I feel lucky today?'
Thank god someone said it 😳 I wouldn't even graze animals in the same field with it!
 

crashbox

Member
Livestock Farmer
I don't rate pulling it. Not just for the work; every one you pull up exposes dirt and a bare patch with a natural seed bank.
Regular topping my plan of attack, have used sheep too but reluctant to give away my grass!
 

Farmer Keith

Member
Location
North Cumbria
By cutting and baling beside it being poisonous and all the issues that creates are you not just spreading the seeds all over the farm in the slurry next year? I once took 15 acres away from the farm and went to cut it one Saturday morning in June, it was 5pm before I got all the ragwort pulled. Worth doing it right though.
 

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