Ragwort

[MrA]

The fields at my yard are full of the stuff.

Ales patch I have cleared from the start and I am slowly clearing his rested area before it flowers as it is overrun with it!

I'm concerned that when the ragwort in the other fields seeds then it's just going to mean even more ragwort next year. Does anyone know how far the seeds do travel?

 

[Taffie]

They will travel definitely, you'll just have to keep on top of the seedlings - a weed burner (long lance with gas flame) is good to scorch them off when they are small. Legally ragwort is an injurious weed (Weeds Act 1959) and controlling it can be enforced by whichever Gov Dept deals with it - in Wales it's the Rural Inspectorate. If you pull up plants make sure you get the root out as leaving it in can trigger the plant to become perennial instead of biannual. Topping isn't very effective but spot-spraying or weedwiping with glyphosate is. (Weedwiper rolls over the tall weeds and wipes herbicide onto them but doesn't touch the grass). Another good way to control it is sheep in early spring - they eat the leaf rosettes without any ill-effects. Horses don't usually eat it when it's fresh, it's presence in hay is the real danger. It is the food plant for one of our rarer moths - Cinnabar Moth - which is listed as a species at threat.

 

[Lemme]

depends on the wind conditions when they seed - we remove ours every year but still manage to get plenty next season.
a neighbour of ours is adamant they have good ragwort so don't need to clear it - no amount of discussion helps - so we pull and burn and they don't- problem we have is that their seeds blow in our direction - so we always seem to have more than them.

 

[newforest]

It used to be enforceable. Our council just leaves it growing in the veges and cuts it.
Some people think it's a pretty flower and have it in the garden!!

What's come back this year is less, however the whole yard gets involved in clearing it. I have done two fields and anywhere I see it on the land.
How come the yard owner isn't dealing with it?

 

[MrA]

It's taking absolutely ages to clear it because it's everywhere. Ale moved fields in November and the patch he was on last year that I ragwort pulled has far less on than the rest of the land.

I'm going to pull all of it that is just outside of his fence line but I can't do the whole area and I'm really gutted that the YO is not doing more to get rid of it but that's not up to me.

I've been doing it for 2 hours and only done a patch about 10m2!!

 

[newforest]

I ride round the land and if I spot it I go back and get it without her obviously. Do you have a similar option to walk him around.
It's our bareback quality time together.
If you are totally over run the land sounds horse sick.

 

[eml]

According to the farmer we had in to spray our land again the problem is that it is no longer a notifiable weed and that the seed can germinate up to 50 years later especially in disturbed soil so fields like ours adjoining a newish road with flourishing yellow banks cut randomly are going to grow a crop every year and so need spraying or pulling every year.

 

[Jessey]

Not the ideal answer but if its overrun and you are swamped by it, perhaps just cutting the seed heads off for now would help and give you time to deal with it? Each plant produces some ridiculous amount of seeds, we're talking hundreds of thousands (thats not a typo) so halting the reseeding cycle will go a long way to helping in future it really is down to your YO to deal with it, perhaps liveries do their own fields if that's the deal there but any rested areas they should be addressing, perhaps worth engaging with them.