o/t Ragwort

Do you guys have Ragwort your side of the world? Came back after our vacation in Canada and the USA to find our 5.5 acre field which we intended making into hay then renting out for horses was badly contaminated with Ragwort? If you guys have this problem how do you control or get rid of it?

Sounds like something from Harry Potter.

Bill........I think sheepies like ragwort, advertize "free" pasture fer sheep? ........Dell, head shepherd RockyRidge SheepStation at the foot of 14K Mt Rainier, Washington, 60-miles south of Seattle, home of Boeing Airplane Co

Are you talking Tansy Ragwort, The cinnabar moth does a good job knocking it back....James

http://www.flickr.com/photos/34520127@N04/4921874785/

http://www.ehow.com/info_8573462_tansyeating-caterpillars.html

Based on the following, I would not put live stock on it. If spot treatmant is not possible, A broad leaf weed killer will work. Remember the stems become pallatable when dried. Jim
Ragwort contains many different alkaloids, making it poisonous to animals. (EHC 80,section 9.1.4). Alkaloids which have been found in the plant confirmed by the WHO report EHC 80 are -- jacobine, jaconine, jacozine, otosenine, retrorsine, seneciphylline, senecionine, and senkirkine (pp322 Appendix II). Other alkaloids claimed to be present but from an undeclared source are acetylerucifoline, (Z)-erucifoline, (E)-erucifoline, 21-hydroxyintegerrimine, integerrimine, jacoline, riddelline, senecivernine, spartioidine, and usaramine.

Ragwort is of concern to people who keep horses and cattle. In areas of the world where ragwort is a native plant, such as Britain and continental Europe

www.weeds.org.au/cgi-bin/weedident.cgi?tpl=plant.tpl...

Looks like it came with the Foxes and Rabbits.

Sheep can eat it... I believe there's chemicals that will kill it, 2-4D being one if you get to it when it's small enough. The best way to get rid of it in a pasture is intensive pasture management where you aim to grow something better and mow the errant plants you do get. After a few years it will be mostly gone.

Rod

(quoted from post at 16:19:14 08/12/12) Do you guys have Ragwort your side of the world? Came back after our vacation in Canada and the USA to find our 5.5 acre field which we intended making into hay then renting out for horses was badly contaminated with Ragwort? If you guys have this problem how do you control or get rid of it?

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Don't make hay out of it if there is a chance it will go to horses. If you let them graze the area, they won't eat it. If they do, they needed to be culled anyway.......

I'd do it in hay, then let the horse folks take it or leave it (the ragwort)...

I'm sure they'll make short work of zooming around and pulling it by the roots then bragging about how hard they worked to "save the horse's lives" on their forums and Facebook... We have it a little on our places and just leave it as decoration until it get's more than a few plants (pull some then)...

I live in Pierce Co. Washington, and we have a county agent , that comes around yearly, looking for Tansy Ragwort growing on my place.I have been here 12 yr's now, and still have ragwort apearing yearly, but not as heavy, as in the past! I fight it every yr, and never give it a chance to flower, I use Roungup on it, and check the same ground at 2 wk intervals, all thru the growing season. The seed is simular to dandelion, and blows with the wind. If my neighbors, and the state, and county road depts, and Fort Lewis, dont control their Tansy, then I will never get rid of it! I wonder if the county noxious weed agent, ever gets on anyone except Me? Yes I am whining! however I am sick and tired of the chemical expense every yr, and being BIG BROTHERED, when I can drive down the road and see the stuff all around the area. I feel like I am the only one fighting Tansy!

(quoted from post at 23:49:06 08/12/12) I live in Pierce Co. Washington, and we have a county agent , that comes around yearly, looking for Tansy Ragwort growing on my place.I have been here 12 yr's now, and still have ragwort apearing yearly, but not as heavy, as in the past! I fight it every yr, and never give it a chance to flower, I use Roungup on it, and check the same ground at 2 wk intervals, all thru the growing season. The seed is simular to dandelion, and blows with the wind. If my neighbors, and the state, and county road depts, and Fort Lewis, dont control their Tansy, then I will never get rid of it! I wonder if the county noxious weed agent, ever gets on anyone except Me? Yes I am whining! however I am sick and tired of the chemical expense every yr, and being BIG BROTHERED, when I can drive down the road and see the stuff all around the area. I feel like I am the only one fighting Tansy!

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Easier to go after and enforce on one guy than a County, State, or National Agency..... Bet if you took pics of the roadsides etc (Not the fort or you'll end up in GTMO :roll: ) and raise enough heck, you'll at least get your chemicals for free....

According to my book on weeds Tansy Ragwart grows on poorly drained and poor marginal soil.Also spraying with things like 2 4-D will make it more toxic to cattle and horses and dried upped its just as toxic as it is green.

(quoted from post at 04:49:40 08/13/12) According to my book on weeds Tansy Ragwart grows on poorly drained and poor marginal soil.Also spraying with things like 2 4-D will make it more toxic to cattle and horses and dried upped its just as toxic as it is green.

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Exactly.... Thought it was only poisonous to horses tho.... I's smarter now...

Don't kid yourself about where it will grow.... because it will grow anywhere. It's more common on infertile ground but that's simply because it gets ahead of whtever else is not growing. It's a common weed in pastures here and has been probably since the land was settled here. Nothing actively eats it unless they're forced to. What did clean it up here was MiG. Strip grazing and using back fences to keep the cows only on today's strip knocked that down completly and produced a lot better variety of forage. A little AN to go with kept the grass growing well ahead of the stinkin' willie (that's what it's always been called around here).

Rod

I'm not kidding myself in my area the only place I run across it is on a creek bottom I cut for hay that usually somewhat damp and the land hasn't had lime for 40 years.It could easily spread but doesn't.

It's spreading like wildfire here in NW Oregon. A danger to certain livestock if they eat it.
Other than pulling the plant up and bagging it the best control is the cinnabar moth and their catepillars. They will eat the whole plant. Hopefully they will eventually get it under control.

It really got bad in western Washington in the 80's- then some folks introduced a lot of cinnabar moth caterpillars, and put them in the cut-over logging areas, where the tansy was just about solid. Moth population exploded, ate up the tansy, and just about wiped it out. But, as in any other biological control, didn't get it completely, so it has slowly been coming back. Cinnabar moth itself is black and red- the caterpillar (that actually eats the tansy) is orange and black striped.

I have a little on my place, but sometimes spray the field with Weedmaster (2-4,D) when plants are immature (no later than May 15 most years), then pull the rest when they blossom. Lots less this year, even though I didn't spray, and I spot sprayed the mature ones with Milestone- seems to be getting a good kill. Missed a few, so pulled them this past weekend- about a double handfull.

We had goats for the first time this year- like sheep, they can eat it without harm, and there wasn't a sign of a single plant in their pasture.