Ragwort early this year

H

henryhorn

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www.narramorehorses.blogspot.com
I could swear we normally find the majority of the stuff around August yet we have been pulling it much earlier this year.
We thought we had virtually eliminated it form our 107 acres but this year it has popped up all over the place!
The motorway appears covered too, so the weather conditions muct have been ideal for the weed..
Does anyone know if DEFRA are doing anything to persuade motorway maintanance to collect earlier?
 
the ones i have seen look a bit `weedy` and spindly,perhaps it`s not got going yet.

august is only 2 weeks away!!
 
i know...we have so much of the damn stuff we are moving the fields around so chris can top and spray each one...i swear last year we cleaned the fields!!
 
it's come up very strongly here, including in fields i spent hours doing last year. one of my little paddocks must have got a good seeding years ago, because i pulled literally hundreds of tiny ragwort plants out last year, and there's plenty this year again.
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am taking the car out later and doing all the lanes around me too, because i so hate riding past it. disgusting stuff.
i really liked the advice about clearing it from grazing fields and leaving it everywhere else. errr... i think we can probably see a slight flaw in their reasoning there....
 
We've pulled loads of the stuff already still have over half the main field we use to pull and burn
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There seems to be much more of it, much earlier this year.
 
We got ours up in May and haven't seen any since then.

We only get it on the un-fertilised paddock which is my mare's restricted grazing for the summer.
 
Yes it is earlier which is very worrying as in India years ago it killed people by the seeds floating into the grain crop. DEFRA doesn't seem to know this and only enforce when an infestation is near grazing land.

All the plant is equally as poisonous and PLEASE wear gloves if you handle this stuff at all as the toxins can enter your bloodstream through your skin. The toxin actually attacks the structure of the liver and the damage is irreversible so don’t take any chances with it.

Have found DEFRA toothless re this weed and they insist you contact the landowner first. English Nature or whatever they are calling themselves these days say that it’s a valuable plant as it is nectar rich, if they are nearby and give you trouble threaten them with DEFRA then they clear it up!

Motorways and major roads you need to contact the Highways Dep’t, they are very good and do take action. Minor roads are the County Councils responsibility and they are all trying to save money so may need reminders!

You have to admire the bl**dy stuff the seeds can travel 1000’s of miles on the wind, each large plant can produce thousands of seeds which can lye dormant for 20+ years in the soil. Every little bit of root left in the soil can regenerate into a new plant. Naturally it’s a biannual but pull it or cut it and it changes tactics and flowers and lives longer!!! Oh and don't put it on the muck heap after pulling as it will carry on growing!

I wonder if you could make bio fuel out of it?
 
I finished pulling most of mine early June and have been just getting the bits that I missed. I had so much this year and I pulled it all last year too. Atleast this year everyone pulled their fields around mine so hopefully we should be on top of it. I spent hours doing my small paddocks!
 
Yeah bloody stuff, you think you got it all then WHAM there is more (I swear it pops up over night), definitely seems to have thrived with this wet/sun/wet/sun weather we have been having.
 
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