sycamore trees

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Sandstone1

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What's the risk of grazing near sycamore in spring?
I know the seeds are dangerous in Autumn but what about now.
We have a couple of trees and they have been fenced off all winter, but now owner thinks it's safe to let horses near them again.
I'm a bit unsure about this.
Any thoughts.
 
I wouldn't risk it. Have spent the last few weeks picking up seeds and am now pulling up seedlings. Dont want to risk grazing in that area until I am happy all have been removed. It is a nightmare though and hard work removing them.
 
Yes, that's what I thought. Very worrying. Will have to try to persuade owner to keep them fenced off. It's not my choice though.
 
Is there any further information on what it is that causes the problem?
I know the seeds are dangerous, but are the seedlings as bad?
It's really worrying.
 
selinas spirit said:
Is there any further information on what it is that causes the problem?
I know the seeds are dangerous, but are the seedlings as bad?
It's really worrying.
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My vet has confirm that the seedlings are just as bad. What he doesn't know (nor does anybody else) is exactly how many a horse or pony needs to eat to kill them.
 
I have them in one field I wait till they are well up then mow them up with the garden tractor .
I have also seen the deer eating them .
 
selinas spirit said:
What's the risk of grazing near sycamore in spring?
I know the seeds are dangerous in Autumn but what about now.
We have a couple of trees and they have been fenced off all winter, but now owner thinks it's safe to let horses near them again.
I'm a bit unsure about this.
Any thoughts.
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The owner has a 'duty of care' to you if you are paying (in any form) for the grazing. Theoretically, you could sue her if anything happens .... maybe not the best way to approach the problem initially, but worth bearing in mind when discussing!
 
Goldenstar said:
I have them in one field I wait till they are well up then mow them up with the garden tractor .
I have also seen the deer eating them .
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This sounds interesting. Although they are mainly on a steep hill at my place so not sure that this would work. Assume they don't grow back but once mown?
 
Patchworkpony said:
My vet has confirm that the seedlings are just as bad. What he doesn't know (nor does anybody else) is exactly how many a horse or pony needs to eat to kill them.
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My understanding is that it isn't a case of how many they need to eat, more that some are poisonous and some not. They don't understand why some are and some are not, and they have found cases where poisonous ones grow on the same tree or even the same branch as ones that don't contain the toxin.
 
We mow them off with the lawnmower in the spring, the blasted things petrify me even though we have grazed horses here for 20yrs with no problem. All our sycamores are being chopped down this summer.
 
Merlin11 said:
I wouldn't risk it. Have spent the last few weeks picking up seeds and am now pulling up seedlings. Dont want to risk grazing in that area until I am happy all have been removed. It is a nightmare though and hard work removing them.
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Ahh so we are not alone picking up ??? :) my boy had raised liver seems ok now but pony in different field has got very high liver, we subsequently found 7 trees on the other side of the road to her field. So we are changing the grazing pattern so they are off the danger bit when they start to fall.



We have been out there on our hands and knees and brought a vacuum leave blower.

We ahve chopped down one but the other two one which is huggggggggggggggggggggggggggggeeeeeeeeeee is on the boundary, it has had a major hair cut, and once autum comes the horses will be off this field so it is nice and short we can then vacuum them up with this

which I think is a very good price >> http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/partNumber/1878932.htm mushes them up
 
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I've recently moved my boys and the new place had one sycamore which they chopped down. I keep seeing the odd old spinner on the concreted yard but none on the fields... I poo pick everyday so look for them everyday but still nothing. The grass is pretty long but I can't believe there aren't any so I'm so worried that I'm missing them!! This whole thing is so stressful and worrying that it makes me want to keep them stabled forever!
 
I too have moved to a new yard...and my field has them in :(
I have bought a vacuum and have been picking them up, so much so that when I shut my eyes I can see them.
I've fenced off half my field as the trees are in the neighbours field can't cut them down, I'm worried sick.
 
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figgy said:
I too have moved to a new yard...and my field has them in :(
I have bought a vacuum and have been picking them up, so much so that when I shut my eyes I can see them.
I've fenced off half my field as the trees are in the neighbours field can't cut them down, I'm worried sick.
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I know what you mean. I see them in my sleep. It's amazing how good your eyes get at spotting them. I also bought a vacuum but find it doesn't work very well when the ground is wet which is normally the case. I seem to be finding more seedlings than seeds now. It would be good if you could get them tested to get an idea of how toxic they are as this seems to vary.
 
We have recently moved to a new yard. They lost 2 horses last year to sycamore poisoning. Most of the trees have now been cut down with a few more to go. Paddocks have also Been swept. I still feel worried turning the horses out on these paddocks even though we have done our best to make them safe. The landowner has never had any issues with horses being poisoned before prior to last year.
 
I'm picking seedlings off the hardstanding daily. The horses have ad lib hay which they are choosing over the grass in the paddock at the moment so hoping they have enough food not to bother with the seedlings. Not sure what else I can do as I don't have anywhere else to put the horses.
 
I too am struggling with sycamore seedlings, they're popping up all over. I also saw some drop from some of my hay over the winter. We can't win.
 
isn't there any place in UK you can test the seeds and leaves ? I had 2 trees tested, one is on my (newly bought) property, the other is on the neighbors field. Luckily the one 1 own is very poisenous and is now waiting on death row :-) will be cut down in the next 2 wks, the other one is completely harmless.

The one I own is very very poisenous and would have given serious problems
 
kobi said:
Legs where are you and how do they test the trees?
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i'm in Netherlands and a university that is studying sycamore's (they do a lot of Agricultural stuff) does the testing for free. It took 4months to get the results but it showed that my "own" tree was very poisenous. they test the hypoglobin A (or what ever it is called) in the leaves and the seeds, they needed about a kg of seeds, a couple of leaves and a photo of the whole tree.
 
I would def pay for mine to be tested. Let's hope somebody in the UK picks up on the research and offers testing here.
 
I would pay too. The trouble is, they say it can be in some seeds and not others on the same tree. So how would they know for definite?
 
They arnt even a native tree, buy a chainsaw . Its rediculous , our local ,supposedly horsey council (\Epsom) actualy wish to preserve this weed,
 
A kg of seeds is an awful lot for the testing. Maybe it's that many to make sure they get enough to cover the fact that some will have it and others won't.
 
I expect they can test for the poison in the UK but I think there is not enough information to be able to definitely say a tree is not poisonous or would never be poisonous which may give a false sense of security which universities may not wish to do. They know that a tree can have a combination of non poisonous and poisonous seeds.

I think until they have tested the same tree over a number of years they won't be able to say a tree will not become poisonous if it currently isn't or just because there were no poisonous seeds in the sample that the tree does not have poisonous seeds as they know trees can have a combination of poisonous and not poisonous seeds.

There seemed to be so many cases last year in places where there had never been a problem before that I expect trees that were not poisonous before became poisonous for some unknown reason so any sycamore may become problematic.

I was on a yard last year where sadly there was a case and there had never been one before and the land had been grazed for many years and grass was plentiful however I do think there seemed more seeds last year than in previous years.

Hopefully there won't be many cases this spring as the risks have been widely publicised so people have greater awareness and can where possible take preventative measures. Before last autumn I had never really thought of sycamore as an issue I was more worried about the large amount of acorns, ironically about two weeks before my friend's horse died my vet had told me about some cases locally and I had become a bit concerned and mentioned it to another livery who did not think it was something we needed to worry about so I did not mention it to any of the other liveries as I thought they would think I was worrying too much and being silly. I did move to a sycamore free yard but I know that is not an option for lots of people as the trees are often not on the YO land so difficult to remove.




kobi said:
I would def pay for mine to be tested. Let's hope somebody in the UK picks up on the research and offers testing here.
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