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Post by cbc on Aug 1, 2008 11:24:14 GMT 1
That is appalling.
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Post by tomrabbit on Aug 1, 2008 13:13:24 GMT 1
This thread is making me so depressed. In my neck of the woods (NE Scotland) there is ragwort on many road sides and roundabouts, and on neglected plots of land. I keep my horses at home, and up to this year, there was no ragwort near me, but I have now removed several mature plants from verges within half a mile of my house, which means they must have been there last year too. I was horrified to find when I hacked on a different route last week, that it was lined with ragwort - way too much for me to tackle on my own, but a little close to my field for comfort. Before reading all this, I was reasonably happy that I had the problem under control in my field at least, which is just over an acre, so fairly easy to check for young plants, but I had no idea that there was a 'seedling' stage where the plants aren't yet unpalatable. How on earth do you spot these? My highland pony is very indisriminate when grazing, more than happy to take a mouthful of buttercups, which I am waging a battle against. I'm pretty sure that he would gobble up young ragwort plants, even at the rosette stage, if I let them grow. Having such a small field, it isn't really practical to spray with something which requires the horses to be moved for weeks at a time, so pulling is the most practical option, but it sounds like you could easily miss these 'seedling' plants. Before we had horses I had no idea how dangerous ragwort was, or even what it looked like. One livery yard we used to have lessons at even had fields full of the stuff, which the YO used to cut periodically, but that was it. I think if more non horsey people knew about the dangers of ragwort, not just to horses, but to other livestock and to humans, there might be more success in trying to stop it spreading. I think many people see it as a pretty yellow decoration for motorways and dual carriageways. It would be good to start a huge negative marketing campaign to raise the image of ragwort as the monster it is, outside of the horse-owning population.
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Post by Val (Toons&co) on Aug 2, 2008 11:53:38 GMT 1
Until this year, I had not seen one ragwort plant in Belgium. This year, I saw one in a path near my house and now, I've noticed there are dozens on the verges or roads and even fields. There don't seem to be any near the field where my horses are nor in the field itself, altho after looking at the seedlings article, it's virtually impossible to tell for sure. I already have horses with metabolic problems and poor livers, it's really scary.
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Post by trallwmfarm sanctuary on Aug 2, 2008 12:43:44 GMT 1
Ive just come back from Ireland and Ragwort is like a national crop there. I spoke to an estate agent whilst looking for an additional farm and he said "its only bad for horses " I explained how toxic it is to everything but years of habit mean people know best and wont consider a safer way.
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Post by julz on Aug 3, 2008 0:36:34 GMT 1
yes i do understand about it... I found some in the garden behind my flat.. I pulled it up, to my neighbours dismay at my having killed the tall yellow plant with the prtty flowers... little do they know! that's gone and hasnt regrown... the other day (cant remember where i was) I saw that someone in thier front garden has a patch of nice flowers and in the middle of it all is a large patch of Ragwort... I mean, come on.... why would anyone have cultivated plants growing among a weed??
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Post by Diane with Sam & Jubilee on Aug 3, 2008 10:45:38 GMT 1
Many don't know it's a weed Julz. My neighbour was horrified when I told him that the plant he was lovingly tending was toxic.
I am surrounded by ragwort and we can never clear my field of it. I've got a crop field next to me that has it all round the edges, as well as scattered within the crops and I've got the TPT next to my other boundary fence which is also full of it. I pull it wherever I can throughout the year. My vet has said that, as mine are hayfed all year round they are not going to eat it and he has been proven right. All bloods have always come back fine. It's still a worry though.
Each year I have tried taking Barnsley council to task but they simply say they don't have the budget to do anything. You can tell when you reach the Sheffield border because the yellow on the verges just disappears. I've been onto DEFRA and filed reports on both the council and the farmer who has the field next to ours. DEFRA actually told me that they have never prosecuted a council and don't have the funds to do so. There is a field near mine that is literally full of the stuff, with mares and foals in it and again, nothing has been done.
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Post by Spirit of Wales on Aug 5, 2008 16:18:07 GMT 1
The dreaded yellow peril - ragwort. It's the first thing I did when we moved in to our new house. Not unpack, but walk the paddocks and sent hubby along the lane and around the hedges and sprayed the rossettes in the ungrazed paddocks and pulled all the rossettes and flowers in the other paddocks and burned. Also needed to remove bloody foxgloves and dig up Giant Hogweed. Finally found someone local now that can come and spray the paddocks and hedgerows for me with a proper hebicide. Once these areas are safe I can then rotate the horses and get the other two main paddocks treated.
It's has if people switch off from the dangers. I like to weedkill at least once a year to keep these dreaded plants at bay....
Spirit of Wales
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Post by 3pinkmonkeys on Aug 5, 2008 20:52:17 GMT 1
The trouble we have is getting a tractor onto the fields at the right times of year to spray, the land is always way to wet Thankfully we only have one field that has ragwort on it and I have really sore shoulders today after spending hours pulling it with my mum. I think I'll invest in a back sprayer for the Autumn.
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Aida
Olympic Poster
Posts: 666
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Post by Aida on Aug 8, 2008 11:33:35 GMT 1
We tried to arrange a ragwort party at our yard (not for where our horses are grazing but in the fields adjacent which cause it to seed all over the place, grr) Afterwards we were all going to have a bbq. After hours of pulling up ragwort my mum, sister and I were exhausted but we had managed to clear the field directly below our own horses field and even a little of the next one along. No one else had turned up. As soon as we light the bbq, here they are! Ready to eat our grub. Next weekend we did their fields as well, left it in a nice big pile for them to burn so they would actually see how bad the situation was. Did we get a word of thanks for it? Nope. And the pile sat in its bags for about 2 weeks before they bothered to burn it. (Yes one of their horses had severe ragwort poisoning and today is known as 'the corpse horse' as he barely pulled through years before we even knew them, but do they learn? *bangs head against the wall*) If we can't get horsey people to bother to pull it up, what chance do we have getting non horsey people who don't understand how damaging it is to pull it up?
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Post by misty on Aug 8, 2008 21:21:19 GMT 1
Luckily there are lots of horses round here and we all keep ragwort at bay. The few plants I've found I've put petrol on and covered with stones. But go along he A11 and it's totally yellow, especially not far from the WHW HQ! The Council did once send some men out but they just broke it off stuffed it into sacks, leaving the roots behind, and puffed on their fags! Tonight, there is quite a big article about ragwort instigated by the WHW and Redwings so perhaps things might happen.
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Post by Telstar on Aug 9, 2008 9:54:48 GMT 1
On my way to work each day I pass a large field being grazed by some lovely coloured mares and their foals. It is COVERED in ragwort. Every year the infestation gets worse. I have no idea who owns the land or the horses. If I reported this to, say, the RSPCA, would they be able to do anything?
Here in West Wales there seem to be some landowners who just don't seem to either want to, or be able to do anything about ragwort infestations. I've managed to keep it under strict control on my little acreage by pulling up any plant I find and removing every scrap of leaf from the pasture. And, yes, I do wear gloves! I consider it an essential job when keeping livestock, no ifs, buts or excuses.
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Post by holi on Aug 9, 2008 16:59:37 GMT 1
I have always got rid of ragwort but this year have read that we are supposed to leave some (not where there are grazing animals) in order to save our disappearing butterflies - so what do we do??
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Post by VeronicaF on Aug 11, 2008 11:46:21 GMT 1
Where I live in wales,the whole place is covered in ragwort,its on all the grass verges as you drive around, its awful I blame the councils for not treating the verges, which in term , the seeds blow onto peoples lands. Luckly where my horses are there isn't any on their land yet but unluckly where I am moving to shortley there has been, although we are trying to sort that out before we move there. I have noticed the neighbour has lots of ragwort on there land which in term then spreeds onto that land we are moving to. the only way I am going to have to sort this out to keep my horses safe, is to go onto their land and get rid of it myself, if they don't. its a nightmare situation with ragwort for everyone concerened.
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Post by VeronicaF on Aug 11, 2008 11:50:23 GMT 1
I will take a photo to show you all how bad our grass verges are around the roads.
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Post by VeronicaF on Aug 11, 2008 16:17:06 GMT 1
I promised photos and here they are this is just a Tiny example of the big problem we have here further on it gets worse and worse,and no matter where you go you see ragwort on every grass verge you go,all those 100's ,millions of seeds blowing- spreading onto peoples lands. so its a big big problem and its the councils at fault,to start with,well it is here.
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