[waterhouse]

We have a ragwort problem as a result of our neighbours (who don't farm or maintain their land) having a major problem.  Fortunately the worst field, which is bright yellow at the moment, is downwind.  We will get a splendid thistle crop a bit later.

We have three uncut boy lambs which we put into a small paddock well away from the girls.  Wet knew there was some ragwort in there but the grass was lush and varied so it was with some surprise that we noticed the boys consuming the flowering shoots as they came up from the rosettes.

The boys aren't likely to have a long life anyway and I've now topped the paddock and collected the arisings to limit their consumption.  Does anyone know which bits of the plant are the most poisonous and whether this level of grazing will injure the sheep in the short term?  I always understood that the plant was distasteful to animals while growing and was most dangerous if dried and fed in forage.

[lachlanandmarcus]

You are right, cut/dried ragwort results in both more concentrated toxins and also loses its bitterness which would otherwise discourage animals from eating it. So you did exactly the right thing by removing the toppings, if people arent going to remove the toppings they are better leaving the ragwort or (better) pulling up the whole plant. By topping the field you will encourage shorter sweeter grass which the sheep might prefer too! If you drop a coin in the grass and cant see it, it might be too long for sheep.

Ragwort is toxic to sheep but proportionately to body weight they have to eat a lot more of it than cattle and horses for it to have serious consequences. So for most sheep, the end comes by other means long before ragwort kills them. Sheep (like cattle and horses) will normally avoid eating the plant too, altho they will eat the young, less bitter and less toxic rosettes in spring if stocked at fairly high density, which can be useful in ragwort control. It is unusual for them to choose to eat the flowering stalks tho, is it dry where you are, has it started to wilt a bit, that might make it more palatable?

Sprays have a role too but it depends on the situation; we inherited 30 years worth of rampant ragwort on 40 acres, but cant spray because our water and that of our neighbours comes directly from the fields we would be spraying. As a result we use a mix of topping, pulling and sheep to try to make headway, we will also be ploughing and reseeding some fields in the future.

[SallyintNorth]

Lambs will tend to try pretty much anything, especially now mum's not there to tell them no.  So they'll probably discover that ragwort flowers are bitter and stop eating them.

In the 70s I worked on the Guinness estate near Thetford, where the beef herd was moved around the 25,000 farmed acres as required.  They'd be put in areas where the grasses were taller than the young calves to clear ready for sheep to follow.  I was told that one reason was that the cattle would avoid the flowering ragwort, and once they'd eaten off the long grass leaving the ragwort plants standing proud, it was safe to put the sheep in.  If the sheep went in when all the foliage was tall they'd eat everything including the ragwort.

[pikilily]

Sorry to butt in here and skew the topic subject a little bit but I have always wondered about this...

I know there was a debate on ragwort on the forum (somewhat heated) last year....

Anyway, from what I understand the toxins from the ragwort collect in, accumulatively, and affect the liver. We are told to wear gloves and masks when handling the stuff because it is so toxic....yet, and heres my pondering...We humans eat lambs liver! What could that effect have on us?

Many farmers...and this is personal observation from driving around our area.... seem happy to graze their sheep on heavily infected fields. One can assume that their sheep will eventually be getting into the food chain...has there been any investigation into the accumulation of the toxins in carcusses destined for consumption?

I prefer to dig the blasted plants up and burn the b***ers!
Emma T

[robert waddell]

from my experience with ragwort       sheep eat the plant in the spring and can kill the plant off             it does affect the liver of animals that consume it (we lost one bullock and the other was saved but never done well after it)       cut and dried it is more toxic     purchased hay with ragwort in it contravenes the sale of goods act               pulling the weed does affect you like organophosphate poisoning 

[Fleecewife]

As ragwort is one of the noxious weeds that we are obliged by law to control, I think you would have a case against your neighbours for doing nothing about their infested land.  I don't know at all where you make enquiries about how to proceed but perhaps someone here will know.
Having said that, there is always ragwort growing away happily round the Edinburgh bypass and the Council doesn't seemed concerned with their statutory duty to deal with it  
Just seen the other post where Happy Hippy says there is no legal duty to clear it - oh well 

The question about whether the toxins accumulate in the liver is interesting - it isn't just ragwort toxin either of course, but in general I suppose lambs are eaten when still young so would not have too great a build-up of toxins, plus we don't eat a diet solely composed of lambs livers (in fact I never eat liver  )  It would be interesting to know if any research has been done...........

[Greenerlife]

I have just insisted that the person who owns the field next to mine does something about the ragwort (ina nice neighbourly way). he was apologetic but it is currently being treated so I am winning!  i have also dug up any I have seen on my little piece of land which came from last years seedlings - what a job that was!  I have also noticed that my local borough has an issue with not clearing it this year.  i knw there are cut backs in expenditure - but it will be ten times worse nect year - perhaps I should phone them up and ask them to do something about it - perhaps they have to if someone reports it?

[Sylvia]

We had a dreadful ragwort problem when we first bought our fields and spent a couple of summers pulling it. We then spent a couple more summers pulling ragwort in our neighbours fields to stop it seeding into ours. I counted fourteen plants on our land today so will get up there with the garden fork this evening.(ground too dry to pull!)

[Tiva Diva]

If you speak to DEFRA they can insist your neighbour does something about the ragwort if you can show it's likely to affect your stock. There is some evidence that pulling ragwort can make the problem worse in the long run. We use a selective weedkiller on fields with no stock currently on them, and if we need to kill ragwort in a field with stock in we use Barrier H which is citronella oil: very effective and the stock won't eat the dead plants, but boy is it expensive. You can spot spray it though.

[Rosemary]

http://scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2009/12/03104249/13

Link to Scottish Government guidance.

Why does pulling ragwort make the problem worse in the long run?

[robert waddell]

no i dispute that statement       sorry to those that have posted       we pulled the ragwort over a number of years and eliminated it
also had a look at the fields responsible for our infestation  and they are not as dense as they used to be

[Sudanpan]

When we first bought our smallholding we had a visit from the One Cornwall (I think) outfit that were there to help with agricultural/rural initiatives. The guy who came was a farmer himself and he had a tramp around our field to give us his views on what we might do with it. We owned up to being complete Newbies and ex-townies and he was very understanding. When he came across a ragwort plant in the field he said the best thing we could do for the field was to uproot all the ragworts when we came across them, and also to control (spray with thistlex) the thistles. He explained about the toxicity and that if we wanted to make hay then we really needed to make sure there was no ragwort.
 We did that diligently for the first 2 summers and we seem to have eradicated the ragwort  Also the thistle burden is miles less.
We do have some ragwort 'reservoirs' in the various fields around us, but as we only have 4 acres we can keep on top of it 
Tish

[Fleecewife]

I think it might be like spear thistles where you get a better result if you wait until the plant has put all its energy into raising its flower spike before you pull it.
Like you all, we had ragwort here when we came, we pulled it all out over a couple of years and now we just get the occasional one from seeds which float in on the breeze.  We have already walked the neighbours hay field we will be cutting and pulled all of that too.  But it must be really daunting to have a whole field or a whole smallholding full of the stuff - you need to organise a barbeque and ragwort pulling party 
For spear thistles it works to dig them up once they are about to flower, although new ones keep coming back for years from old seeds, and for creeping thistle it has worked here to top them frequently so they never flower and they just go somewhere else 

[lachlanandmarcus]

Unlike topping which can turn ragwort from being biennial to a perennial albeit preventing seed distribution so still worthwhile), pulling it up does not make it more prevalent, rather the opposite, provided it is done just before flowering as others have said, and provided you get the whole root out and leave nothing behind. That means pulling carefully in light/wet soild but using a ragfork designed for the purpose in heavy or dry compacted ground.

Certainly the paddocks we have pulled the ragwort regularly in are much much better now than they were 3 or 4 years ago when we moved here.

[feldar]

We have a big problem down here, but our sheep do graze it off when its a young plant and they don't show any obvious side effects. Some of our ewes are well up in their teens.
It is worth mentioning that ragwort is the foodstuff of the cinnabar moth catapillar so total irradication would not be good.