[midtown]

There is no quick fix for bracken control!
It needs a programme formulating which may require anything between 3 to 10 years of active intervention, which could involve a combination of methods.
Crushing is designed to bruise the active stalk causing bleeding and eventual weakening of the rhizomes, a process which can be hastened by the additional intensive use of livestock in sectioned off areas, but bearing in mind the stock used must have access to fodder in order to prevent them being forced to eat the bracken, and the subsequent associated health issues.

I'm familiar with one experiment where pigs were used to disturb and root out rhizomes - which may have a relevant degree of success in lowland or woodland areas, but is hardly likely to be beneficial in upland areas where a conservative estimate put the rhizome weight down to as much as 40 tonnes per acre!
There is also the rather contentious issue of using animals to graze a potentially carcinogenic plant species, especially if those animals are destined for the food chain!

Other issues include the eradication of extensive bracken growth on hillsides, may render the ground subject to a higher risk of erosion, but on a positive note - eradication will also help get rid of the favoured habitat of the tick and the associated problems healthwise for both animals and humans.   

[mab]

I had wondered about the carcinogens effect on the pigs too - though some say the pigs root it up rather than eat it. And yes I'm worried about erosion on the steeper bits too - maybe stick to chemical means (or roller on a winch) for those.


Regen I do like the idea of using a log - just attach some angle iron to create ridges for bruising the stems and bore a hole in each end for a greased rod 'bearing' - good enough for trying out the idea.


I have been scything bracken in the near field at least 3 times /year for the last two years and twice so far this year, but whilst is does seem to be weakening the bracken it's not killing it very much for so much effort.


I did glyphosate a couple of patches and one patch worked well (but has taken a couple of years for the grass to recover) and the other didn't kill the bracken completely (but did kill the grass). So it's all a bit hit and miss - quite probably 'cos there's this narrow window of opportunity to kill it before it turns brown and if you're busy or the weathers wet then you miss it for the year.


As for making use of the bracken, well I have used a bit for mulch, I composted a bit and I did try storing some for bedding (though it got wet and went manky). trouble is the amount of time & effort required if you're doing it by hand so I only used the bits near the yard (and that was mostly to clear the cut bracken off the grass).

[Zebedee]

Bracken is best got rid of and ought not to be thought of as useful to man or fed to livestock. The plants contains carcinogens for one thing and extended exposure to the spores is not good either.

Asulox is very effective against bracken. The correct time to apply is now until late August, during the period when the plant is actively translocating resources back to the rhizome before the above-ground plant starts to yellow and die away in late autumn. Asulox is legally on sale until 16th September and supplies are supposed to be used by the 31st October after which period its use becomes unlawful. It can still be bought as a 5 litre quantity as far as I know. Glyphosate is effective too as long as you accept its scorched earth effect.

I don't think Asulox was banned as such. Greater restrictions have been imposed (not just on Asulox) on herbicides and pesticides generally with manufacturers having to provide more evidence of their relative safety. Its sale and use in the UK is now time-restricted for the forseeable future:-

 http://www.nfuonline.com/science-environment/pesticides/emergency-approval-for-asulox-in-2014/

[ladyK]

There was an interesting post from Miss Piggy some time back on a different thread about bracken and carcinogenic effects (note the last paragraph):

Hi, we have a very large field which when we aquired it was up to your neck in bracken. We are successfully using pigs to reclaim the land. It is the young brcken fronds that are poisonous to cattle etc if they eat it.  The pigs do not eat the tops of the bracken they root it up nibble at thelonger roots and then just leave a big central core or knub of root that my OH picks up in a bucket at feeding time. To help the process along my OH does with a scythe chop the top of the bracken off, collects it in a pile and burns it every now and then when it has dried. He just does a little every feeding time. The pigs have now cleared about an acre with no new regrowth on the cleared land. We have used a couple of our cattle to successful trample down some of the bracken also prior to the pigs going in. They go into the field for a short while at a time. If  the cows are well fed and not hungry they do not touch the bracken and we would not put them in there when the young fronds are coming through. it is only very hungry animals that will eat bracken apparently. Using the cattle to trample the bracken was suggested to us by an organic farming consultant at the Royal Welsh Show.
 Just an extra note. My husband is an oncologist ( cancer specialist ) and has researched bracken extensively and if he felt there was any risk to us or the pigs we would not manage the land in this way. Herbicides to kill the bracken would be more dangerous to our health or subsequent use of the land. The field is on a steep slope running down to a beautiful stream that flows onto the beach 500 yards down stream. So herbicides a definite nono anyway.

[edited to remove typos, can't stand them!]

[midtown]

An abundance of research has been carried out by various bodies, with clear indications of the health risks associated with bracken.

Page 7 of http://www.liv.ac.uk/researchintelligence/issue24/pdf/ri24.pdf
http://www.defra.gov.uk/ahvla-en/files/pub-bracken-pigs.pdf
http://jech.bmj.com/content/52/12/812.full.pdf

Interesting to note that while some folk are concerned about the possibility of residual herbicide leeching into water courses, the simple fact that bracken is likely to leech a carcinogen into a far larger body of collective water courses, doesn't cause undue concern!

[pgkevet]

A nice find on those references. I hunted in google for more upto date publications from Rob Marrs' research and found this: http://aob.oxfordjournals.org/content/101/7/957.full

the most relevent bit suggested that twice a year cutting June and August was probably the best. That is still a 2006 article and later studies might differ

[mab]

all interesting stuff - looks like I'll have to keep at it with my scythe in the pastures - though there's too much to do a lot in June and august.  I'm still planning to make a crude bracken roller to try it out. Have to admit that reading about how nasty bracken is makes me feel better about applying chemical control - though I better not read too many of those articles or I might be afraid to go out into the fields at all.


Useful to see the recommended 15days off bracken before sending pigs to slaughter - though I still wonder how much other feed the pigs need to keep them from eating the bracken whilst getting them to root it up.


have heard of another wild idea: - someone did suggest applying lime to the bracken would kill it but cannot find anything online to back him up. I think it prefers acid soil but am not sure how much lime would be needed to kill it.

[regen]

Hello MAB

If your intention is to "improve" the pasture then liming may be necessary anyway if it is inherently acid and by so doing you may weaken the bracken at the same time.

If you want to keep pushing it back then why not look at roundup gel which can be applied to indervidual plants. Not very quick but worth a try - It works on young brambles but inthe end i found it quicker to give each bramble plant a quick hand spray.

Regen

[midtown]

I've spent sometime today on an estate. I used the opportunity to ask the Forester what steps they took in controlling bracken over different land areas.
1. Where the lay of the land permits, bracken is cut using a tractor with a heavy duty rotary cutter. Cutting takes place from the end of June and based on a 3 year cycle of cutting annually, they've seen a reduction in new growth.
Additionally, they've collected the cut and allowed it to rot down, mixing it with other home grown 'muck' for use elsewhere as a fertiliser.
2. Areas inaccessible to tractor and cutter are crushed using a quad towed bracken roller or forestry extraction pony, again pulling a roller.
3. Moorland areas are the biggest challenge. Extremely expensive to spray by air, and the manpower isn't available to physically make any impact. Some burning takes place.
4. A novel idea where the public footpaths run is, encourage users to wander off the designated paths and use the path edges where bracken is encroaching. An idea apparently used in parts of Dartmoor National Park.
5. Since the announcement of the withdrawal of Asulox as an approved herbicide, judicious use of glyphosate also takes place to reduce encroachment.

[ladyK]

Very interesting MT, thanks for sharing this.

[pgkevet]

Wife's comment on using rotted bracken was :.. 'what happens to the carcinogens? Do they go up the food chain?'

....

[mab]

cheers MT - if they use rollers then that suggests they find them effective.


I've acquired some Asulox via my nice neighbour    so I can use that where it's invading the pastures - though even the mfg recommend Asulox as part of a broader control program - e.g. use Asulox one year then cut the next.


need to acquire a bit more angle iron for the homemade roller and some shafts for the pony harness...


then it'll be a combination of roller, scythe, asulox and roundup (for the dense bracken monoculture bits).


Hi Regen, I'm not so much trying to improve the pasture in the short-term as trying to stop it from deteriorating (turning to bracken). Though at some point I'll do a PH test and go from there...
(off topic P.S. I shut the hydro down last week due to insufficient rainfall - was down to 12watts)

[ladyK]

This is an interesting study on reversing the harmful effects of bracken with selenium supplementation (in mice anyway):
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/21112370/

[regen]

"off topic P.S. I shut the hydro down last week due to insufficient rainfall - was down to 12watts)"

If I had one and if it was working to my estimates it would be down to about 150 watts based on the current flowrate.

Going the legal route is going to be both long winded and expensive me thinks! Now got a quote for £500 for all the survey work- Badgers,otters,water vole,Assorted plants and habitats and even look at the b----y trees.

Regen

back to the bracken - rather than pulling something that revolves why not get Rosie to pull a small sled weighed down with a concrete block or two which would at least flatten the bracken but may be not as effectively as the roller.

[midtown]

Wife's comment on using rotted bracken was :.. 'what happens to the carcinogens? Do they go up the food chain?'

....

To answer your question; The high temperatures that are attained during composting break down ptaquiloside, the carcinogen that bracken contains, and the end result is a material with a high content of fine fibres.
as per the following FC Information Note; http://www.forestry.gov.uk/pdf/fcin3.pdf/$FILE/fcin3.pdf