Is this ragwort?

[PurBee]

Thank you so much for your detailed responses, I really appreciate it. I’m not going to feed any more of the hay it’s not worth the risk farmer has ignored my messages so I highly doubt he’s going to offer to take it back. It’s actually got plants in I don’t recognise and now I feel really stupid, people always say I’m too anxious and I know a yard has been feeding this hay for a few months with no issues, but now I wish I’d trusted my gut. I really hope the horses haven’t ingested anything harmful.

It may well be the yard thats been feeding this hay, is just hay from the same supplier but not necessarily the same batch of hay youve just received. Multiple suppliers ive used in the past have several batches available, last years overflow, this years 1st cut, and 2nd cut, cut from various fields.

The batch i got that was teeming with cats ear weed was a hay supplier recommended by a nearby horse person. I happened to enquire just after 1st cut was sold, and got 2nd cut from a rough field. Im sure the person who recommended them wasnt feeding this hay as i saw their ponies and they were walking fine and ridden fine. There was so much cats ear weed it was literally bound up with any hay, and just 1 bale would deliver a toxic dose eliciting symptoms. I threw the whole lot away, and hunted for another supplier.

It’s actually written in agri laws that noxious toxic weeds are not to be baled in animal feed and sold. So strictly speaking under consumer good laws, if found, a farmer is liable to refund the buyer. But in practice most deny, ignore…unless youre a huge yard with a large order. But they get the ‘prime fields’ premium cuts anyway, and wont be sold the back-field full of weeds stuff.

There’s a lot of safe weeds in meadow hays, but theres a few we dont want to feed.

You might not need to give up on your hay if you can find any leaves with your flower bunches to fully i.d.

 

[HannahB]

If your horses have eaten only a tiny bit they should be fine, just look out for any signs of abnormal behaviour. Have you got any pics showing the leaves, as they are really distinctive in ragwort

 

[AWinter]

I couldn’t see any leaves with this plant unfortunately, which I’m now panicking I fed to them, there are a lot of long brown leaves mixed in with the hay, I think there’s thistle and plantain in there and a bunch of other stuff, I’ve never had such planty hay now I wish I’d trusted my gut. I’ve already got horses recovering from liver issues from mouldy hay at the last yard . Back to feeding the small bale stuff which leaves me with a hay bill of £600 a month for 4 horses .

Thanks everyone.

 

[holeymoley]

I have a photo of ragwort I found last year in my hay, I’m trying to find it.

 

[PurBee]

I couldn’t see any leaves with this plant unfortunately, which I’m now panicking I fed to them, there are a lot of long brown leaves mixed in with the hay, I think there’s thistle and plantain in there and a bunch of other stuff, I’ve never had such planty hay now I wish I’d trusted my gut. I’ve already got horses recovering from liver issues from mouldy hay at the last yard . Back to feeding the small bale stuff which leaves me with a hay bill of £600 a month for 4 horses .

Thanks everyone.

Long brown narrow smooth edged ribbed leaves sound like plantain. Theyre fine to feed. Thistle isnt toxic either, just the risk of your spiking your fingers and them getting spikes stuck in their tongues. Mine eat young fresh thistle rosette hearts carefully and slowly when theyre growing in the fields, and they love plucking thistle flowers fresh off the plant, but they dont ever go for the rough large spiked parts. I tend to pull that out of hay whenever i’ve had thistley hay, its easy to spot and throw-out.

If the long brown leaves are crinkle-edged, take a pic and post it. They might be ragwort.

It’s intriguing you cant find any leaves on your flowers though - that could be a good sign as hawksbeard upper leaves are minimal and narrow spikey-shaped, much easier to fall-off than ragwort crinkly upper leaves.

If you can find a few bunches of the flowers in the bale that you very slowly and carefully pull off and handle delicately, and photograph in good light, post them up, as more pics of more examples of the plant gives a better overall view of the plant, than 1 stem example. You might be able to find still stuck to the stem some partial leaf part. Part of a leaf is better than no leaf.
Ragwort and hawkbeard mostly have their larger main leaves growing at ground level, which can then oftentimes flatten-out as the plant matures and grows their flower spikes. The lower leaves could be missed by the hay mower cutting at a 4inch height once the leaves have flattened against the soil.

The small bales you feed - is that haylage? There’s a uk company supplying larger bales which work-out much cheaper than feeding the small 20kg bales. Ideal if youve got 4 horses. With just 2 horses i was using big 200kg bales and because the haylage was well-made, got to feed it over 10 -14 days without spoilage.. (from a different supplier than the link - im not in the uk)
Here’s their shop link:

Haylage for Sale

Writtle Hay and Straw offer top quality haylage for sale. Our grass products are tailored to give a range to suit different nutrition requirements, feeding situations and of course budgets.

www.writtlehayandstraw.com

 

[AWinter]

Long brown narrow smooth edged ribbed leaves sound like plantain. Theyre fine to feed. Thistle isnt toxic either, just the risk of your spiking your fingers and them getting spikes stuck in their tongues. Mine eat young fresh thistle rosette hearts carefully and slowly when theyre growing in the fields, and they love plucking thistle flowers fresh off the plant, but they dont ever go for the rough large spiked parts. I tend to pull that out of hay whenever i’ve had thistley hay, its easy to spot and throw-out.

If the long brown leaves are crinkle-edged, take a pic and post it. They might be ragwort.

It’s intriguing you cant find any leaves on your flowers though - that could be a good sign as hawksbeard upper leaves are minimal and narrow spikey-shaped, much easier to fall-off than ragwort crinkly upper leaves.

If you can find a few bunches of the flowers in the bale that you very slowly and carefully pull off and handle delicately, and photograph in good light, post them up, as more pics of more examples of the plant gives a better overall view of the plant, than 1 stem example. You might be able to find still stuck to the stem some partial leaf part. Part of a leaf is better than no leaf.
Ragwort and hawkbeard mostly have their larger main leaves growing at ground level, which can then oftentimes flatten-out as the plant matures and grows their flower spikes. The lower leaves could be missed by the hay mower cutting at a 4inch height once the leaves have flattened against the soil.

The small bales you feed - is that haylage? There’s a uk company supplying larger bales which work-out much cheaper than feeding the small 20kg bales. Ideal if youve got 4 horses. With just 2 horses i was using big 200kg bales and because the haylage was well-made, got to feed it over 10 -14 days without spoilage.. (from a different supplier than the link - im not in the uk)
Here’s their shop link:

Haylage for Sale

Writtle Hay and Straw offer top quality haylage for sale. Our grass products are tailored to give a range to suit different nutrition requirements, feeding situations and of course budgets.

www.writtlehayandstraw.com

Thank you so much, unfortunately I can’t feed haylage currently feeding dust extracted small bales of meadow hay, whcih are lovely and consistent but very pricey.

I haven’t looked through any more of the hay that was the only plant I found that looked like that in the whole bale but of course I’m worried I perhaps missed some. I now have 3 bales of this stuff sat here and I’m not sure what to do with it. Farmer won’t reply to me.

 

[Apercrumbie]

Just to reassure you - if you're stuffing haynets from a bale you will almost certainly always spot ragwort as it's so much chunkier than hay. Point being, it's very unlikely the horses will have eaten lots of ragwort even if you've had a few contaminated bales.