Ragwort awareness week !

[Ruddyreindeer]

Next week is the BHS ragwort awareness week, again. I failed to do anything about it last year, o) and felt really guilty ! It's because there is ragwort everywhere I look, in my area. Hampshire is the number one county for ragwort, and yes, I live in Hampshire !
Local estates send teams out to pull the dreaded weeds, but in all honesty the chaps doing it don't really understand that if they leave traces then the weeds will just grow back. It isn't possible to use weed killer as the forest ponies graze most of the lanes, and it even grows on the open heathland.
Local landowners who let grazing to horse owners just aren't bothered about getting people to pull it before it all goes to seed, and I pass field after field of the yellow peril, with grazing livestock ( mostly equine around here).
People just don't get the threat it poses. A lot of them think that
a) Horses and ponies won't eat it because its poisonous, it tastes bitter.
b) So long as they pull it after it has flowered it won't spread.

It really annoys me to see farmers harvesting hay from fields infested with the stuff. Most of it is fed to cattle, but some is sold to unsuspecting and often inexperienced horse owners. Knowing what affect it has on equines, and having read that it is also fatal to sheep and cattle, I wonder how it affects humans who eat the meat etc from animals fed on this hay / silage ?

Quite a rant there, sorry, but I do feel strongly about the whole subject. So, any idea how I fill in the BHS form ? !?

 

[much-jittering]

Yes it does affect cattle too.

I'm also in Hampshire and don't need an awareness week, as every spare second of every day I am pulling the stuff. If I counted up all the hours of overtime I've put in over the years pulling ragwort and invoiced for it I'd be onto a small fortune - shame we don't get paid overtime!

 

[ponyperson37]

A neighbour of mine has a pony seriously ill with liver failure thought to be due to ragwort ingestion. He has been in the same (ragwort free) home since a foal, except for a brief spell on loan. He either ate ragwort then or has inadvertantly had it in his hay. Vet suggests going thro all hay before feeding, but how many people think of doing that?

 

[Ruddyreindeer]

A neighbour of mine has a pony seriously ill with liver failure thought to be due to ragwort ingestion. He has been in the same (ragwort free) home since a foal, except for a brief spell on loan. He either ate ragwort then or has inadvertantly had it in his hay. Vet suggests going thro all hay before feeding, but how many people think of doing that?

I have battled wind and rain, struggling with hay nets, torch in hand , while trying to see if any ragwort was present in the hay, so yes , I have had to think to do just that, but what a pain ! Much easier if you can rely on the person who made the hay to be honest enough to say if there could possibly be some ragwort, then have the option not to buy it !

I have been digging and pulling the dreaded weed in my field for 6yrs, and it is a year round occupation. As its the leaves which are poisonous, waiting until the plants flower still leaves animals at risk, so I dig out even the tiniest plant. How many years can the seeds remain viable in the ground, 7 ?, 27 ? ? Oh well, this rain will be doing wonders for it - better get my fork and go digging !!!

 

[joy]

Morning and evening I am in my field armed with a bucket and a trowel digging the bloody stuff. My neighbour has abandoned her 10 acres and it is growing like a root crop year upon year whilst all around her suffer, farmers can't make silage, one woman can't finish her organic lambs and it's coming through my nieghbours tarmac drive!!!
A fortnight ago I drove from West Wales to Southampton and the bloody stuff is everywhere.