The dangers of Ragwort
Ragwort is a highly poisonous plant and poses a particularly risk to horses, due to the damage caused to the liver when eaten. Over time, irreparable damage can be caused by the build up of the toxic effects. Unfortunately this can result in horses becoming ill from ingest even small amounts of ragwort over time.
To keep horses healthy, it is vital to ensure that they don’t eat ragwort. Due to young ragwort tasting less bitter than mature plants, horses may consume this dangerous plant without realising.
Although ragwort loses its unpleasant taste when it dies, it remains just as dangerous as well living. As a result, any ragwort in hay or haylage, or fallen leaves from a plant which have dried, are just as harmful as living plants and can be very easily eaten.Identifying Ragwort
Seedlings from ragwort plants start to shoot in autumn and are typically up to 15mm in height.
The ragwort rosettes appear from early spring, with mature plants flowering from May to October and reaching up to 2 tall.
Once they have flowered, the majority of the ragwort plants die, resulting in the seeds germinating in the area where the plants had been. However, one plant can produce thousands of seeds which can be spread by wind, birds, etc.
Ecoweed Ragwort Treatment
The Ecoweed way of tackling a widespread infestation is to inject the ground with our hot water system killing the ragwort to root.
The dead plant is still poisonous, so you must rest the field or remove all traces before putting your horses back out.
Ecoweed offer a scarifying service to assist it the removal of the dead ragwort and we can arrange for your paddock to be over seeded with fast growing grass.
The environmentally-friendly weeding and invasive species control specialists
