What happens if you dont pull ragwort?

[Andie02]

Ragwort: how to deal with it in a horse paddock - World Horse Welfare

Find out how to recognise ragwort and the best ways to remove it.

www.worldhorsewelfare.org

World horse Welfare says the same as the NFU wear gloves and cover arms and legs when dealing with ragwort. It also says that it can be harmful to humans.

 

[Burnttoast]

Ragwort: how to deal with it in a horse paddock - World Horse Welfare

Find out how to recognise ragwort and the best ways to remove it.

www.worldhorsewelfare.org

World horse Welfare says the same as the NFU wear gloves and cover arms and legs when dealing with ragwort. It also says that it can be harmful to humans.

If humans eat it sure.

They are not correct if they mean you can be harmed by touching it.

 

[blitznbobs]

This

 

[PinkvSantaboots]

I cleared the middle of my track last week and the ruddy things are back already. I’ve been round tonight with the rag fork and feed sack as we had rain last night and they are so much easier to dig out when the ground is soft. Lots of rosettes along the school fence which have also been dispatched. What with ragwort and sycamore seeds falling summer is a bloody nightmare.

Cut it as its so late now I did it in my small paddock and I kept just cutting it and alot if it never came back, I also spot spray with barrier h once it's pulled or cut and I found the bits I kept cutting came back less than the bits I pulled because you never get the whole root when pulling.

 

[PinkvSantaboots]

Always wear gloves when going near it I always do its potent stuff.

 

[Exasperated]

On your first point: pyrrolizidine alkaloids are protoxins - that is, they must be metabolised in the gut before they become harmful. Therefore any level of absorption through skin is irrelevant. For the same reason, comfrey is widely used externally as a herb although PAs from it can be absorbed through the skin, but it's not generally considered safe for internal use. Skin irritation can occur from handling ragwort but is caused by sesquiterpene lactones, which are produced by many members of the daisy family. Gloves may improve comfort when pulling a lot in one go.

Thanks for updating, good to know that whatever is being measurably absorbed through skin doesn’t poison one in the same way as if eaten, and certainly easier to pull ragwort with gloves on.
To go back to our neighbour, who inhaled fumes from burning ragwort and finished up in ICU - before discharge from hospital, she received a thorough debriefing about dangers of ragwort from the consultant (whose family apparently also have livestock and understood the context). I’ve phoned her to clarify what she was then advised, which was:
Never to eat or risk it anywhere near her mouth or food;
Keep upwind from any ragwort being burnt and wear a face mask (this advice was specifically against burning ragwort, not barbecue or bonfire smoke in general);
and never to pull plants with bare hands because the toxins can be absorbed, also to discard or boil wash any gloves used.
This was in a teaching hospital, academic / research faculties etc, and although the science may have moved on, covering one’s skin against ragwort must remain an obvious precaution.

 

[vannersrus]

So have a 5 acre field for horses. It is next to another 5 acre that they cut weekly as a lawn
I have always pulled ragwort.
Last year the ‘cut’ field was left for hay.
As it grew loads of rag appeared -at least 10 times as much as my field .
Cutting obviously not as effective as pulling over a 5 year period!

 

[Lois Lame]

No, they come back and seed so you get more and more until you end up with a rancid patch of toxic weeds. Ragwort has a two year cycle, seeding in the second year. What also happens when you don't pull it is sometimes ponies (or horses, cattle, sheep) will eat it and eventually they will develop liver failure and perhaps die, as happened to a friend of mine who never believed it was in her words "worth it" to pull ragwort and let it grow for 15 years until first her beloved older horse died (of liver failure), then her sheep started getting sick (she got the sheep to eat the ragwort, which they will willingly do), and now her goats are dying too.

I bought this small farm 23 years ago, a sea of yellow plants. I pulled and pulled every year, less every year until finally for the last 8 years or so I can say I'm free of ragwort (still go out to look; I got two juvenile plants last year).

I love that you pulled out the ragwort instead of spraying.

 

[Lois Lame]

I do feel sorry for all these guys
I might try picking them out and finding a highways authority plant for them to live on

View attachment 143999

Nice pic. I've never seen these little chaps before.

Is Ragwort soft and ferny? I've got a lot of tansy growing under the clothesline out the back - the hoosband thought they were ferns! I notice that one of the common names of Ragwort is 'tansy ragwort'. Presumably different...

 

[cauda equina]

Nice pic. I've never seen these little chaps before.

Is Ragwort soft and ferny? I've got a lot of tansy growing under the clothesline out the back - the hoosband thought they were ferns! I notice that one of the common names of Ragwort is 'tansy ragwort'. Presumably different...

No, it's quite tough and leathery
I had never heard of it being called tansy ragwort; I do see the similarities with tansy
Apparently another common name is stinking willie, I'd never heard of that either!

 

[canteron]

Ragwort thrives in poor and overgrazed land, so to an extent can be controlled by improving and managing pasture.

 

[3OldPonies]

I do feel sorry for all these guys
I might try picking them out and finding a highways authority plant for them to live on

View attachment 143999

I put mine over the fence on the Railtrack plants .

 

[nagblagger]

Ragwort thrives in poor and overgrazed land, so to an extent can be controlled by improving and managing pasture.

Can you tell my ragwort that - 9 equines in 20+ acres, i don't think it's overgrazed, as said before, never had it so bad.
I have a double trailer of the stuff waiting to be burnt.

 

[PinkvSantaboots]

Can you tell my ragwort that - 9 equines in 20+ acres, i don't think it's overgrazed, as said before, never had it so bad.
I have a double trailer of the stuff waiting to be burnt.

I think its just gone mad just about everywhere this year.

 

[SantaVera]

It spreads