[Rosemary]

We certainly pull ours, so I was a bit suprised (and concerned) to see that there was evidence that it made the problem worse, since that's what we've been doing. There was also nothing to that effect in the SG booklet. It makes the same point about cutting turning it from biennial to perennial.

[princesspiggy]

i read that the toxin doesnt get passed down the food chain, so eating lambs liver wont give u the ragwort toxin.

[pikilily]

thats reasuring....can you remember your sorce?
ET

[lachlanandmarcus]

Re the cinnabar moth : yes it's endangered, but there are billions upon billions of ragwort plants in this country if you count the plants plus the seeds which can lie dormant for over 20 years. There is absolutely no chance of ragwort ever becoming a rare plant!!: but currently it is completely out of control.

In experiments the numbers of cinnabar moths when given sparse ragwort or pasture choked with it showed  no substantive difference in population growth. So while some ragwort is important for the moths, control of it near livestock or forage crops is no going to affect its growth in numbers dramatically. If every single ragwort plant we could get to in the country was removed, there would still be many hundreds of times those needed for the cinnabar moth left in locations which arent easily accessible! Plenty left for Mr Moth.

While we rely on physical methods of control (which will always be the case for most areas where ragwort thrives), there will always be plenty for the moth and it is a red herring in the debate over how best to control it in the areas where it is causing animals to die agonising deaths.

[VSS]

This place was infested with ragwort when we came here - now we have none.

Yes, pulling does help but you need to do it for a number of years to see much difference and it is a sod of a job.
THe best way to eradicate it is to graze REALLY hard (and I mean REALLY REALLY) with sheep in the spring when the rosettes are coming up. This seriously weakens the plants and they never recover. At this stage of growth, the plants are less toxic so do no harm to the sheep. You have to graze hard, otherwise the sheep will eat the grass and leave the ragwort. They need to be also on bare earth!! It is tough on your sheep, but it will deal with the ragwort. Do it for a couple of seasons, and thereafter, ruthlessy pull up any ragwort that you see. I haven't seen on here for about three years.

[YorkshireLass]

In my (limited!) experience, our sheep will happily take the young ragwort rosettes. (Hebrideans with a few crosses). Any cumulative effect is very slow, we have some very old ewes! I would be interested to know about the liver/toxin build up though.

Agree that ragwort shouldn't be eliminated entirely, as it's a native plant and a valuable nectar source for bees etc as well as the aforementioned moth - however I doubt it will become endangered at any point soon!

I've found rubber gloves, or those with rubber grippy bits, work better for pulling than the special little forks you can get. 

[pikilily]

A horse hoofpick helps with the teeny tiny plants, better than a ragfork. The hook slides under the base of the plant and teases it up out of the ground nicely.
Emma T

[pikilily]

Oh - forgot to ask..

does anyone know what concentration of citronella works? i have a bottle of pure C-oil i bought from the chemist, may work out cheaper than the preparitory stuff.
Emma T

[ellied]

I have 10 acres and inherited quite a big problem with ragwort - forests to be precise

I sprayed it for 3 years in a row (commercial sprayer came in each spring and fields left 6 weeks ungrazed) which helped no end, but now I am overstocked and the only paddock I could leave empty I could only handspray and it's worse than ever so I'm pulling 1-3 barrows a day of the stuff  The back field has wee rosettes again and half a dozen rows of mature plants which have clearly grown in gaps between the spraying rows, possibly due to wind drift but they're reasonably simple to clear up.  The other 2 paddocks I pulled the preflowering ones but more have sprung up so it's got yellow flowers again and I can't go back to those til I finish the infested one so it seems never ending again, like back in the early days 9 odd years back

I think sheep may be the answer so if I have chicken wire left from the pen I'm making at the moment (in between pulling ragwort ) then I'll use it to infill the one bit of fencing that is just plain wire rather than rylock, and then I'm going shopping for weaned lambs

Because I need them for weed control, grass tidying and of course the wool for home produced felting - so not a pet or another few mouths to feed but a working animal.  I need them, not want them, so that's ok then

How many per acre to get the ragwort low level first year stuff cleared? 5-6 Shetlands?

PS if anyone is bored and fancies a ragwort pulling party I'm open to offers and happy to provide some form of catering

[robert waddell]

sorry ellied not for me          the toxins affect me even the heady smell goes for me         we used to be amazed at the high level of infestation over in fifeshire    up the m90 corridor

[katie]

It's foul stuff, isn't it? We had a bad infestation when we took over 2 years ago but I went mad at pulling it last year - I think I am a worlsd expert of ragwort in all it's stages - and it is a lot better this year.
It annoys me when people go on about the cinnabar moth. It's hardly going to go short of food. What is o about farm animals that people don't seem to have a regard for their welfare? Foxes, oh yes, moths, definitely but sheep and cattle - obviously owned by rich farmers and therefore not worthy of sympathy!
Sorry - rant over!

[feldar]

Oooh now steady ,i never said don't control it. we have a huge problem here i would never advocate not pulling it up, it's all about striking the right balance like foxes, badgers rabbits etc they all have their place but in moderation. we find our sheep seek it out, they love it but only when it's a young plant and actively growing, dried its lethal.

[princesspiggy]

Ragwort Facts
Information on Ragwort in the UK from a scientific perspective
 
Ragwort and meat some expert opinions

The following is a quote taken from another website, the reference to which is below. It is by by Dr Peter Cheeke of Animal Sciences Department Oregon State University a leading researcher into Ragwort. In the USA ragwort has become a problem because like many species released into a foreign ecology it is not controlled by its natural predators and diseases. This is not the case in the UK where it is a native and natural part of the ecosystem.

The PA [ pyrroldizine alkaloids] are not accumulated in the tissues; it is the damage that is cumulative. The damage is confined to the liver, which in an animal with ragwort toxicity would be shrunken and fibrotic. The carcass would likely be condemned because of the liver damage. In sheep which had consumed ragwort but did not show obvious liver damage, there would be no residues of PA in the meat. The PA are metabolized in the liver, and excreted as conjugates in the urine. Small amounts of pyrrole bound to DNA in the liver would not be measurable. Thus in my judgement there is no concern whatsoever about possible human toxicity from consumption of meat from sheep which had consumed ragwort.

Another source of information on this subject comes from a standard text book Chemistry and Toxicology of Pyrrolizidine Alkaloids which is written by Dr A. R. Mattocks of the Toxicology unit in the UK's Medical Research Council Laboratories

There is no record of PAs being detected in meat products from livestock which might have ingested PAs. Past experience with laboratory animals suggest that levels of PAs in the tissues fall very rapidly after intake. Metabolism by liver enzymes is fast, at least in the rat, and toxic metabolites are quickly deactivated. During the chronic ingestion of PAs the effects of the alkaloids are cumulative in the liver but the alkaloids themselves are not. Thus we anticipate that concentrations of Pas in tissues would only be be high is the animals were killed very soon after a massive intake.

Reference http://forages.oregonstate.edu/main.cfm?PageID=230&topic=Animals

See also Ragwort poisoning in Humans

 
 
www.ragwortfacts.com

just what i read...decide yourselves.

[waterhouse]

I read the Weeds Act 1959 (which seems to cover Scotland as well) and the DEFRA guidance is attached here http://www.defra.gov.uk/forms/files/weed2a.pdf

Enforcement can only be done via DEFRA for whom it's a low priority, though it does say that land used for grazing or production of forage is prioritised.  It also requires one to have attempted to get the offender to fix the problem first.  I'm going to try the neighbourly approach first, but the land runs with a house that reckons it's worth £1.5m so will be owned by a lawyer, accountant or suchlike.  We have a lot of houses with a couple of acres around here - we're already farming three such neighbours properties.  The downwind property is owned by a Mr Smith who is a Traveller with numerous planning infractions elsewhere

In answer to the earlier question the lambs ate the fresh flowering shoots as they were coming out of the ground rather than the leaves.  My observation is that the rosette of leaves forms and then the flowering shoots head upwards very rapidly.  The big yellow flowers we're seeing now are a metre+ high

We use the ragfork to remove plants on pasture as we find them, but the less problematic neighbouring land has several hundred ragwort bushes with thistles close behind.  

[Fleecewife]

Thank you PrincessPiggy - that does it for me