When we had the smallholding we walked the meadows in the spring with a knapsack sprayer zapping thistles and ragwort at the rosette stage, and later on we'd walk the meadows again before cutting for hay, hand pulling any that we'd missed. They were stacked, dried and burned. Ragwort in hay is especially toxic.
Anyone walking the meadows 'poo picking' was also expected to keep their eyes peeled for ragwort as well, and dig it out removing the root. In a few years we virtually eradicated what had been a moderate infestation in two of the meadows.
In my experience, if the grazing is good horses and ponies will usually avoid eating ragwort - however, if the grazing is poor and they are hungry, like the rest of us they'll eat almost anything - and so often people who know nothing about the dangers of ragwort know nothing about the quality of grazing either so the problems are compounded.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
As you say, when green it's unpalatable so they won't eat it if there's any choice.
However once dried: so end of growth season or made into hay then it's palatable and will be eaten and will cause chronic serious illness and ultimately death.
I was talking to a lady who had horses where I walk, the field the horses were in didn't have ragwort, but quite a lot of docks. She told me the horses don't eat it because they're bitter and would need to eat a lot because it's not that poisionous.
The cinnabar moth is pretty amazing. Not only does it eat the ragwort that's toxic to most animals, it stores the toxin in a sac somewhere in its body which makes it highly toxic to any potential predator. That, and its warning colouration (black and orange striped caterpillars; black and red adults), are generally pretty successful at deterring predators.
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When we had the smallholding we walked the meadows in the spring with a knapsack sprayer zapping thistles and ragwort at the rosette stage, and later on we'd walk the meadows again before cutting for hay, hand pulling any that we'd missed. They were stacked, dried and burned. Ragwort in hay is especially toxic.
Anyone walking the meadows 'poo picking' was also expected to keep their eyes peeled for ragwort as well, and dig it out removing the root. In a few years we virtually eradicated what had been a moderate infestation in two of the meadows.
In my experience, if the grazing is good horses and ponies will usually avoid eating ragwort - however, if the grazing is poor and they are hungry, like the rest of us they'll eat almost anything - and so often people who know nothing about the dangers of ragwort know nothing about the quality of grazing either so the problems are compounded.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
As you say, when green it's unpalatable so they won't eat it if there's any choice.
However once dried: so end of growth season or made into hay then it's palatable and will be eaten and will cause chronic serious illness and ultimately death.
I was talking to a lady who had horses where I walk, the field the horses were in didn't have ragwort, but quite a lot of docks. She told me the horses don't eat it because they're bitter and would need to eat a lot because it's not that poisionous.
The cinnabar moth is pretty amazing. Not only does it eat the ragwort that's toxic to most animals, it stores the toxin in a sac somewhere in its body which makes it highly toxic to any potential predator. That, and its warning colouration (black and orange striped caterpillars; black and red adults), are generally pretty successful at deterring predators.
Nice Steve. Are they your pics?
In the sticks near Peterborough