We all love to see wildflowers blossoming in the meadows, bringing bright colour to the countryside in the summer months. A dominant colour at this time of year is that of the yellow ragwort flower, which may look pretty, but can be "pretty" lethal to most livestock. If cattle or horses were to eat ragwort, the poison contained in the leaves collects in the liver of the animal and over a period of time can reach a lethal dose, causing liver failure and death. Althougth the foul taste of the plant prevents animals from eating growing plants, once the plant is dying it becomes more palatable and cattle and horses have little sense and will chomp their way through large quantities. This is one of the reasons why our countryside needs to be correctly managed.
It is a difficult plant to get rid of due to it's biennial cycle and the fact that each flower produces thousands of seeds. Using chemical herbicides is an effective method of control, however the land cannot be grazed for 8 weeks until the plants have completely died off so this is not an entirely satisfactory method and certainly not organic.
An alternative, but time consuming method is to pull each individual stalk by hand, which we sometimes do at Hoe Grange much to the disgust of our children and farm workers, particularly as they have to wear fetching rubber gloves to prevent the posion passing through the skin! When faced with a 20 acre field full of yellow plants you can imagine the complaints.
By far the most effective method of control is using mother natures best secret weapon and ragwort destroyer supreme - the sheep.
They are too stupid to notice the horrible taste and even seem to prefer it to grass at times! Strangely the poison in the ragwort has no effect on them and they happily munch away till it is all gone. We got rid of our sheep a few years ago and the ragwort has become more of a problem, so we now borrow our neighbour's flock during the flowering season.
Perhaps sheep are not so stupid after all!
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