Ragwort and Grass Management

Cop-Pop

Cop-Pop

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My field is becoming over run with weeds :( I was going to use Grazon 90 but it says it shouldn't be used to control ragwort. Is there a spray similar to Grazon 90 that will clear the weeds and ragwort? I'm struggling to keep on top of it by digging them out, got over 100 plants out last week and they're growing at the rate of knots :( Ideally I don't want to keep her out of it for more than 14 days as got very limited space.
 
Go to the website ProGreen.co.uk. They have many different weed killers and they rate the effectiveness of each one. I'm in the process of killing creeping buttercup with Kaskara.

On the website, there is a short tutorial on ragwort and its elimination. Follow those instructions, but particularly what it says about dead ragwort. Despite the fact that all the weed killer labels say to keep animals off the treated areas for at least 14 days and UNTIL THE DEAD RAGWORT BECOMES UNPALATABLE, NEVER leave the dead ragwort laying in the field. Remove it, because when it is dead it DOES become palatable while retaining all the toxic properties of live ragwort. The statement about dead ragwort being unpalatable is industry-wide and is completely incorrect. The Chemical Regulation Directive is going to be pressured into changing that erroneous information.
 
RutlandH2O said:
Go to the website ProGreen.co.uk. They have many different weed killers and they rate the effectiveness of each one. I'm in the process of killing creeping buttercup with Kaskara.

On the website, there is a short tutorial on ragwort and its elimination. Follow those instructions, but particularly what it says about dead ragwort. Despite the fact that all the weed killer labels say to keep animals off the treated areas for at least 14 days and UNTIL THE DEAD RAGWORT BECOMES UNPALATABLE, NEVER leave the dead ragwort laying in the field. Remove it, because when it is dead it DOES become palatable while retaining all the toxic properties of live ragwort. The statement about dead ragwort being unpalatable is industry-wide and is completely incorrect. The Chemical Regulation Directive is going to be pressured into changing that erroneous information.
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Good God, I am shocked. How on earth did that come about?
 
I posted about this almost 2 weeks ago. While I was trying to educate myself regarding the best product to use to kill creeping buttercup, I would see references to ragwort. I don't have a problem with the weed, but the occasional rosette will crop up and it is dealt with rapidly by being dug up with my handy penknife which lives in my jeans pocket. Whenever I see the word ragwort, red flags appear. ProGreen sells many different chemicals for the eradication of specific weeds. Their website shows the actual labels of each of those chemicals. I was leaning toward a particular chemical when I saw the infamous sentence re: dead ragwort being unpalatable. I rang the company and had an interesting conversation with one of their technical reps. The conversation was basically me telling him that the statement is incorrect and him humouring me. Finally, I explained to him that a very knowledgeable professor in Liverpool, who is probably the world's expert on ragwort and its deleterious effects on livestock, would be able to corroborate what I had just told him. We chatted a bit more, and then he said I should contact that professor. I told him I would do just that. We got off the phone and I contacted the professor's office and spoke to his secretary. She suggested I send her an email which she would give to the professor. I heard nothing more until the following morning. I got a call, answered it (thinking it was a friend of mine) and found myself speaking to the professor himself. He said he had just gotten off the phone with the company rep with whom I had spoken the day before. The professor said they were on the phone for an hour and that the rep was going to talk to the powers that be in the company about altering the statement. I thanked the professor, who then thanked me...I was gobsmacked!

That evening, as I was looking at additional chemicals from a different company, I found the identical statement re: ragwort. The next morning I rang that company and spoke with their rep. Same thing. We were both sitting in front of our computers and it turned out that every ragwort killing chemical from every company we were bringing up on screen, carried the same statement regarding ragwort's 'unpalatability' when dead on their labels. This chap told me that changing the labels, industry-wide, would involve the Chemical Regulations Directives agency. When I told him about the professor, his whole demeanour changed. I asked him if he had any idea from where this perception of dead ragwort being unpalatable came. He didn't know.

I do believe there is going to be a shake up. Ragwort poisoning being cumulative, it wouldn't surprise me if a class-action suit were filed against some of these companies by people who followed the directions on the labels and several years down the line they had horses dying of liver failure. Well, it probably won't be a simple as that, but surely a campaign educating, not only the public, but the chemical industry itself should be undertaken. The professor will be made aware of these more recent findings.
 
Look for products containing MCPA for broadleaf weeds - docks, thistles, ragwort, nettles. Gives buttercups a nasty fright but won't kill them, they have an underground rhizome that gives them 9 lives :D For them you need something containing mecaprop. I got all this info from our local agricultural suppliers, who have an agronomist on staff.
And word to the wise - don't buy the small bottles, they are a rip off - get 5 litres or more, will last years in a frost free environment and cost so much less per litre. I do all mine with a knapsack, bit at a time, it's quite a nice way to stroll around the fields in decent weather and after several years all I have to do now is watch for interlopers like nettles :) It gets personal lol

With all of them it pays to leave 3 weeks before grazing, by which time ragwort should be starting to rot and really unpalatable, only a starving horse would eat it and if the grazing has had 3 weeks rest it will have plenty else to go at.

If you want to physically remove ragwort, it could grow back from any bits of root remaining. But if you put salt into the roots after you have lifted ragwort that is supposed to kill the roots and stop them regenerating.
 
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Gosh Rutland - that's great news!

OP - please do not spray ragwort. Get yourself a ragfork and dig it up. If you are infested, it's a pain, but over a couple of years it really makes a difference if you get every rosette. I know as a neighbour's field borders my land and for maintenance I get to use it. It was riddled with ragwort and bunny holes, but it didn't take me too long with a ragfork to clear it but yes, it's back breaking work!

Make sure you wear gloves as it can be absorbed into our bloodstream and burn it.
 
^^ as nicnac has said, im affraid best way to get rid of ragwort is good old fashioned hard graft pulling it out by the root! Plus side- Once its all out its so much easier to manage the next year though
 
JillA said:
With all of them it pays to leave 3 weeks before grazing, by which time ragwort should be starting to rot and really unpalatable, only a starving horse would eat it and if the grazing has had 3 weeks rest it will have plenty else to go at.

If you want to physically remove ragwort, it could grow back from any bits of root remaining. But if you put salt into the roots after you have lifted ragwort that is supposed to kill the roots and stop them regenerating.
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The problem is that dead ragwort NEVER becomes unpalatable. Being dead and broken up on the ground makes it all the more palatable for the horses to eat, even if they are munching on grass that has dead ragwort in amongst the blades.

Re: rag forks. There is a new product on the market by Fiskars. It's called their W52 weed fork. It is so brilliant because you never have to bend and break your back again. Both the rag fork and the W52 will leave some amount of fine roots, but the W52 removes the weed and then all you have to do is pull back on the handle and the weed pops off (into a wheel barrow or muck tub or sack). I have a rotten back and I'm going through a bad patch right now. I can actually use the Fiskars and it doesn't hurt my back (weeding in my garden, not the paddocks). Take a look on YouTube. Search Fiskars W52 Weeder. And, no, I am not a Fiskars employee.
 
RutlandH2O said:
The problem is that dead ragwort NEVER becomes unpalatable. Being dead and broken up on the ground makes it all the more palatable for the horses to eat, even if they are munching on grass that has dead ragwort in amongst the blades.
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Where did that information come from please? I knew a well known stud owner who used to pull the ragword and LEAVE IT IN A PILE IN THE FIELD!!! Her horses never touched it. I know it is supposed to be palable when it is dead, but not when it is rotting IMHO - but I am prepared to stand corrected if the source is reliable, hence my question.
If you repeatedly tell people to pull rather than spray, that is often all the excuse they need not to bother - especially if they have a sizable acreage. If you spray, it WILL die, then rot to nothing and the problem is solved - until you get reinfested by a neighbour who thinks the only answer is to pull and he hasn't got time. So I am interested to know where that statement comes from.
 
JillA said:
Where did that information come from please? I knew a well known stud owner who used to pull the ragword and LEAVE IT IN A PILE IN THE FIELD!!! Her horses never touched it. I know it is supposed to be palable when it is dead, but not when it is rotting IMHO - but I am prepared to stand corrected if the source is reliable, hence my question.
If you repeatedly tell people to pull rather than spray, that is often all the excuse they need not to bother - especially if they have a sizable acreage. If you spray, it WILL die, then rot to nothing and the problem is solved - until you get reinfested by a neighbour who thinks the only answer is to pull and he hasn't got time. So I am interested to know where that statement comes from.
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First of all, I did not recommend pulling over spraying. Nicnac made that suggestion. I simply added that there is a new weeder that makes pulling less back-breaking.

Leaving dead ragwort in the field where it grew, is very dangerous! I would suggest you contact Professor Derek Knottenbelt at Liverpool University. He is the world's authority on ragwort and he and I had a conversation regarding the chemical companys' fallacious statement that dead ragwort is unpalatable. Also, ProGreen has a little ragwort tutorial on their website stating the importance of removing the sprayed, dead ragwort to prevent the animals eating it because it becomes palatable when dead.

Leaving a pile of dead ragwort in a field is so irresponsible! If the wind is as strong as it has been of late, pieces of it could be blown around the sward and be ingested by the horses.
 
I think i would give fields at least 6 wks rest if you are going to spray any chemicals.
With regards to Ragwort i would never spray it off, unless the field was to be left ungrazed for at least 9mths. The risk to gazing animals is to great. Good old hard work is the answer, dig it out.
If possible allow the field to grow to hay length. This smothers the majority of weeds, then pull the tall Ragwort out before it flowers.
 
My horse is in 40 acres of fields, how are we going to manage it? I've only been on since feb apparently the Farmer laughs when we mention it to him.
 
One of our fields runs next to a disused railway line (great for hacking - terrible for ragwort), when there are 100's of mini plants per sqm it is not practical to dig and I find they come back in multiple unless I spend a long time digging out every tiny piece of root.
I use a mix of Agritox and Depitox - after several years of trying diff products this combination works the best on all weeds and does kill the rag down to the roots, it doesn't re-grow.

You do need to keep them off the field until all the dead ragwort has completely rotted away - this is at least 6-8 weeks.

Its a proper farming product so you may need to get your friendly neighbour farmer to come and spray it properly for you - not sure you can buy it without the right licences.
 
Agritox and Depitox were the chemicals recommended to me. I wound up using Kaskara because ProGreen gave it a 5 out of 5 for buttercup eradication. What has left me scratching my head, though, is that inside the Kaskara label, the company lists creeping buttercup as being moderately susceptible to the chemical. We've just done the first of 3 fields with a knapsack sprayer.
 
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