Grazing sheep on ragwort?

Paint it Lucky

Paint it Lucky

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Just read an interesting article about ragwort removal which mentioned grazing sheep on fields with a ragwort problem as they will graze it so low that the young plants will die?

Is this really true and are the sheep not affected at all?

Just wondering as used to be at a yard where there was a terrible ragwort problem that no ammount of digging or spraying would get rid of!
 
Our sheep never bothered with the ragwort - they just stuck to the good grass!! Ragwort is pretty bitter stuff so they will only really eat if desperate, and yes it does destroy the liver if they do eat large enough quantities, but as it is an accumulative toxin it may take years to show any signs if they have eaten it - and your average breeding sheep doesn't get past 7 or 8. I helped do a postmortem on a 12 year old pet sheep that had a wound that didn't stop bleeding, it had to be put down and the owners wanted to find out what was wrong with her and sure enough the liver was very badly damaged.
As for affecting the plant - only constant grazing year after year will kill one or stop it seeding - but they are such tough plants personally I'd rather just pull them up!!!
 
Oh yeah... silly me forgot that that is what happens to sheep! (I am a veggie so live in fluffy bunny land!)

Do they actually kill the ragwort then, or does it just grow back once you take the sheep off it?

(And ps if you weren't intending to kill the sheep for meat would they then die of ragwort poisoning?)

Edited to add: ignore the above as Alexart has just answered my questions! (thanks Alexart)
 
We have 50 breeding ewes here (and currently around 100 rather diddy little lambs:)) and yes, sheep will eat down into the floret of the plant and do kill it off, but it won't completely eradicate the weed from your land (but it means there is less to pull out each year). If, like me, you are surrounded by other farmers who aren't nearly as bothered about ragwort as I am, you will never really get rid of it, but if you are luckier then a combination of sheep/spraying and pulling will clear it eventually;)
 
If the sheep get the ragwort as seedlings then they will kill it. Established ragwort will come back from its roots, however if you have sheep that like it - some sheep LOVE it - they will keep eating it so that it never gets to flowering so saving you having to pull it before it seeds.

A 12 year old sheep would have been very close to death anyway. The reason that most breeding ewes don't make it past 7 or 8 is that the teeth drop out, that's how sheep are designed. A sheep with no teeth cannot survive without special feeding plus many sheep get arthritis causing considerable pain and loss of condition, which is why we kill ours before they get thin and pain-ridden. As I've said before, and I'm sorry if it offends your vegetarianism!, we kill our own sheep to prevent them having to make a frightening trailer journey to the abattoir, and butcher them on site. I have never yet seen one of our oldies with a liver in less than perfect condition.
 
Wrong on both couns.

Sheep ARE affected by ragwort, they just get slaughtered before they have long enough to eat it enough to become affected.

No matter how close to the ground it is grazed (or cut) it will not be killed.
 
We had a huge ragwort problem years back but a lot of pulling them up and spraying has resolved the situation. My stepdad put hooks on a bucket so that it hangs on the wheelbarrow - this way I can pull up any lurking ragwort plants whilst I am poo-picking! Not seen one in a good while though. :)
 
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