[sheila]

Thanks for the photo's. I don't think we have any but I will be aware.

[amanda]

Well ive been in my field digging these tiny ragwort growths today,  there are hundreds and hundreds of them and it has really stressed me out! Ive got another 2 acres to get through!!! Am i going to have to do this every year or does anybody know of a pesticide that kills ragwort coz the Depitox didnt!!

[jinglejoys]

Barrier H is the best because you can see it working straight away and you can see which plants you have already sprayed.If you are pulling by hand remember to wear gloves as it is poisonus and can be absorbed through the skin

[RagwortExpert]

As far as I know it is against the law to graze any animal in a field of ragwort in Scotland although no one seems to enforce the law. I only know of one horse owner who had to move his ponies and this was enforced by the RSPA Scottish Branch. Two pounds of ragwort is enough to kill a horse, having seen ponies die of this I  would not wish it on anyone. My friend lost her horse a few years ago, the ragwort had been in her hay that she bought, she had been told it was ragwort free. Its also possible to make your neighbour control ragwort on their land if you are growing a crop that will be fed to animals, friend took her neighbour to court and won her case.

Sorry but this is not true it takes between 5 and 25% of body weight to cause any problems and is only classified a medium risk. There are no controls either.

http://www.ragwortfacts.com/

There are also other sites.
Ragwort the sense and the nonsense

and

Ragwort myths and facts



Basically there is a lot of overblown hysteria which is often promoted by people with a financial interest in panicking people. The reality is that ragwort poisoning is actually very rare. The last of the sites above is written by a horse owner who thought that ragwort was evil and terrible until she asked for proper scientific advice and realised all the nonsense that was being spread around.

[jinglejoys]

Wouldn't want to risk my mules with it obnoxious little weed!

[sabrina]

You may be right in what you say but up here farmers can be made to move cattle if they are grazing in a field full of ragwort. Also neighbours who have the stuff had to remove their horses and get it dealt with before being allowed to graze their horses. We used to be surrounded by it but now most of the farmers spray every year and keep it at bay. If you have experienced a horse dying from ragwort then you would never take any risk again. My vet is very experienced on this subject. You may think its rare but in the North of Scotland it happens in all grazing animals.

[RagwortExpert]

You may be right in what you say but up here farmers can be made to move cattle if they are grazing in a field full of ragwort. Also neighbours who have the stuff had to remove their horses and get it dealt with before being allowed to graze their horses. We used to be surrounded by it but now most of the farmers spray every year and keep it at bay. If you have experienced a horse dying from ragwort then you would never take any risk again. My vet is very experienced on this subject. You may think its rare but in the North of Scotland it happens in all grazing animals.

I don't just think that it is rare I know that it is rare because it has been studied and found to be rare. There have been people stating daft figures in the press but we know from all the studies carried out here and internationally that poisoning is rare.

If you look at the Dutch website I provided to you and investigate you will find that one of the co-authors is a scientist who actually has a Phd in Ragwort.

Ragwort poisoning is non-specific.All you see are the symptoms of liver damage which has lots of causes. When Post Mortems are carried out it is then often found that ragwort ISN'T the cause but most of the time they do not bother.

A scheme to check  cases  like this in the Netherlands has had no cases at all since 2007!

If people are being forced to move cattle because of the presence of ragwort then they should be forced never to let the cattle out in the fresh air. Why? because they probably have a greater risk of being struck by lightning. It is a daft idea to keep cattle away from rain but it is as daft as some of the claims about ragwort.


I wouldn't have much faith in the Scottish authorities on this matter. A few years ago they published a draft document on ragwort with a really bad howler of an error in it. They could not have made this error if they had even the simplest grasp of its toxicology.

[Hardfeather]

I wouldn't have much faith in the Scottish authorities on this matter. A few years ago they published a draft document on ragwort with a really bad howler of an error in it. They could not have made this error if they had even the simplest grasp of its toxicology.

Enlighten us on this error, please.

[bazzais]

If people are being forced to move cattle because of the presence of ragwort then they should be forced never to let the cattle out in the fresh air. Why? because they probably have a greater risk of being struck by lightning. It is a daft idea to keep cattle away from rain but it is as daft as some of the claims about ragwort.

You can eradicate a ragwort risk easily even if you do consider it to be a low risk problem - you cant do that with rain, thats a risk we all have to take without question.  Its a stupid analogy.

Anything that makes your animals environment safer is a good routine - no-matter how small the risk is.

Ta

Baz

[waterhouse]

Get the Ragfork - it's brilliant.  Persistence is the only answer...

[Dundonald hens]

You do need to keep at it the plant needs to be sprayed very early when its about 5 to 15cm in diameter and less than 10cm high,pulling it out is good and makes the place look good but realy hard to get it all as some of the roots break of and then you get even more plants !!
The seeds also can lye dorment for a year or more and just when  you think you have got ontop of it low and behold there nunners !!
We had a feild with a real ragwort problem and I would honestly say after a lot of research and a lot of work we are getting ontop of it.
We have used a spray called headland polo and another called loopo which thecnicily you need a spraying cert to use.
The besg way I have found is to blamket spray the area and thenm wait 10 days and get you back pack sprayer or the lance from your tow behind sprayer and slowly walk the feild spot spraying any weeds that have not started to die back but trying not to blsmket spray just spot spray this is very slow but the only way i have found to kill long established plants.
Sorry to say a peace of land with a bad ragwort problem will take between 3 and 5 years to totaly eradicate.

[landroverroy]

Ragwort can be easily cleared in a season by grazing sheep on the land in early spring. They eat out the new leaves as they start to grow and the ragwort plants can't get growing again and just disappear. You may find a very few plants growing later in the year but these will be from the previous year's seeds. I have practised this effectively for over 20 years with no ill effect to my sheep and have even been offered free winter grazing by horse owners as a way of cleaning up their ragwort ridden pasture.

[Fergie]

Ragwort can be easily cleared in a season by grazing sheep on the land in early spring. They eat out the new leaves as they start to grow and the ragwort plants can't get growing again and just disappear.

Yes, I've heard this too, although we don't have any ragwort - probably because the sheep don't let it grow.

John

[jinglejoys]

But sheep are usually slaughtered before ragwort takes effect....it can take up to 4yrs.Wonder what its doing to the livers of people eating the sheep!

[landroverroy]

The sheep I keep over winter and which eat out the ragwort are my breeding ewes that normally die of old age at @10 years +. They are seldom eaten. HOWEVER -the way it works is that like most other stock, the sheep wont eat the ragwort at the stage when you can see it. They ONLY eat the tender young leaves as they emerge in Spring so the plant is killed before its produced much growth. Therefore the amount the sheep actually take in is pretty small and that's why it doesn't affect them.