Is ragwort in hay becoming too commonplace?

[Doncella]

My YO makes his own clean haylage for the liveries and his own horses. However due to the lousy weather and grass shortage this year he bought in some hestons. I went to get some hay and saw some nasty purple stems, pulled them out and lo and behold they had ugly yellow heads on them. I hauled out a whole flap from this bale and it was almost entirely ragwort with yellow heads on them so don't tell me that who ever cut this hay missed this.
At the weekend I was out and about to visit a farm where hay and haylage is professionally produced, got half way down the drive stopped and turned round why? The hay was baled up on the field and in the field margins and the hedges were clumps of flowering ragwort, to my way of thinking if it's in the margins and the hedges then the stuff in on the field and in the hay.

 

[Apercrumbie]

How awful for you! I have yet to come across any ragwort in my hay but my local area seems to be pretty good at keeping it under control. The problem we're having this year is with a plant called chicory! It's not poisonous but it's everywhere, resistant to spray and is really difficult to remove.

 

[cptrayes]

I've seen it cut and baled at a livery stables near me. It's extraordinarily dangerous in hay because horses will eat it when it is dried. Rates of liver failure in horses are going off the scale, a vet has told me, and ragwort has to be the main reason.

I never buy forage that I have not seen grown if I can possibly avoid it.

ps in the war chicory was what people used as a coffee substitute

 

[Dolcé]

Our YO was obsessive about ensuring his hay was ragwort free so our fields are in pretty good shape. There are a few areas that we have to keep an eye on and make sure it is pulled before it seeds, unfortunately the fields next door are awash with that, thistles and docks so it all just keeps reseeding. I think this year was a pretty bad year for it (or good for ragwort, bad for us) and there seems to be loads around. If I ever found any in hay/haylage I would tell the supplier but I would never buy from them again.

 

[Pedantic]

Bloody firework carcass in mine last week wondering when it's going to be a bloody chinese lamtern wire and crapp next

 

[0ldmare]

There were 3 large fields near me that were cut and baled for hay. All of them had a LOT of ragwort and one, in particular, was quite literally more ragwort than grass. Seems they couldn't care less.

So glad we cut our own.