Hay containing yellow rattle. Anyone?

[limestonelil]

One of our old tiny fields we take hay off was full of rattle in places this year. I remember other HHOs had this too.Now I'll find the rattle stems carefully pushed aside and all the other hay gone. Anyone else got this? I've not tried nibbling a bit myself to test flavour, a lot of old traditional meadow plants do taste alright from past nibbling investigations.

 

[asmp]

Ah, I thought you‘d found a baby’s rattle and this was a post about weird things found in hay!

ETA I have never heard of rattle

 

[limestonelil]

Ah, I thought you‘d found a baby’s rattle and this was a post about weird things found in hay!

ETA I have never heard of rattle[/QUOT

??It's a type of parasitic plant of old established hay meadows that aren't chemically fertilised.

 

[rabatsa]

People removing you muck heaps for spreading on grassland will not be happy with yellow rattle seeds as it is deliberately sown to decrease the nutrients and fertility of land.

 

[SEL]

I can't comment about it in hay, but I've got a huge swathe of it in one of the fields I bought last year that the horses left untouched. Its all died back and gone black and slimy underneath so we're going to get the brush cutter on it and then I need to work out how to manage it.

 

[sbloom]

People removing you muck heaps for spreading on grassland will not be happy with yellow rattle seeds as it is deliberately sown to decrease the nutrients and fertility of land.

I guess that depends on what they're using the grassland for, for anything for horses or other good doers it's a very good thing as it increases biodiversity in the species growing which is good for many animals and the ecosystem. For dairy cattle or rich hay, maybe.

 

[Burnttoast]

People removing you muck heaps for spreading on grassland will not be happy with yellow rattle seeds as it is deliberately sown to decrease the nutrients and fertility of land.

Its all died back and gone black and slimy underneath so we're going to get the brush cutter on it and then I need to work out how to manage it.

Yellow rattle's an annual, so if you top low during flowering you should greatly reduce it in one pass. It's hemiparasitic on grasses (mainly) so gets some of its nutrients from the grass, some from the soil. It weakens the grass but doesn't deplete the soil any more than any other plant. The seed also needs to be fresh to germinate so if it's been sitting in a muck heap for a prolonged period it's pretty unlikely to germinate once spread.

 

[limestonelil]

People removing you muck heaps for spreading on grassland will not be happy with yellow rattle seeds as it is deliberately sown to decrease the nutrients and fertility of land.

I hadn't thought of that as a follow on, will be interesting to see if it tries to establish anywhere else. It's all on farm , nowhere else involved. Other fields are farm livestock and so managed differently. Also interesting to see if it's as prolific this season.

 

[MotherOfChickens]

it spreads quickly, my water meadow had none, now it has a reasoanble tract of it, only in the flood plain bit. But then I also have alot of common knapweed, vetches and the like. Anything to reduce the amount of grass. Its one of the few things they dont eat.

 

[vhf]

We encourage yellow rattle on our ancient upland grass. The horses don't eat it - I believe it's mildly toxic but since they clearly avoid it I don't fuss too much. The diversity of plant and other life in the paddock with the most yellow rattle in fascinating and the 'lower quality' grazing is a big help with my fatty. I've never seen it in hay, but I wouldn't worry now if I did. Previously, I may well have done! It does establish very easily, we've collected seed and given it to others with conservation projects.

 

[SantaVera]

usually plenty of it on our hay. i do notice some left in the manger but then again theres bits of other hay left too as I feed ad lib and dont like them to run out.

 

[SEL]

We encourage yellow rattle on our ancient upland grass. The horses don't eat it - I believe it's mildly toxic but since they clearly avoid it I don't fuss too much. The diversity of plant and other life in the paddock with the most yellow rattle in fascinating and the 'lower quality' grazing is a big help with my fatty. I've never seen it in hay, but I wouldn't worry now if I did. Previously, I may well have done! It does establish very easily, we've collected seed and given it to others with conservation projects.View attachment 86305

I've got fatties so perhaps less need to worry then.