Ragwort

blowin · Ragwort

A poisonous weed , as you will know .
Animals seem to avoid it when it is green/growing but will eat it once it has withered or browned off . I had understood that was because they simply didn't recognise it in that state but have recently been told that it actually sweetens and will attract grazing beasts once it has died , so should be kept well away from anywhere the animals might get to . Is that true ?

Marie

yes, thats why its always burnt instead of adding to compost ,although i think sheep are the only ones that can tolerent it. Have a little of it

quarryman

I have been told that locally, years ago, a goat was put in with the cattle, as the goat would clear the field of ragwort and the cattle would be safe.

blowin

That is interesting .
Do you know whether the toxin gets into the goat meat ? Could you eat it at the end of the season ?

quarryman

I don't know if they ever ate goat meat in the "oulden" days. I will ask.

tractorpunk

i've heard that sheep can eat ragwort, but that it doesn't do them any favours.If they eat a lot, over a couple of years, the toxin builds up in their livers (same as horses) and even tho it doesn't kill them, they wont thrive. our soay have eaten some, despite our best efforts to uproot what we can, but we still plan to eat the meat. maybe we'll avoid the liver.
anyone know any way to get rid of it other than pain staking uprooting by hand?

macconraoi

I find that persistent topping after grazing knocks them back to the point where they wont regrow.The problem is that the fields we stop for hay and silage always have Ragwort in them,which we end up hand pulling Shocked

before we cut silage or hay.

blowin

A Irishman gave me the local name for it but I couldn't for the life of me repeat it correctly . Could anyone give both the Gaelic name and a phonetic spelling which a blowin might understand ?
He thought the only risk was when it got into silage and couldn't be recognised by animals , not to do with it sweetening and actually attracting anything .

macconraoi

Buachalán might be wrong spelling but thats what it called.Iwill give the phonetics a go 'Book a lawn'

blowin

That sounds about right but when I tried to say it the local farmer practically wet himself laughing !

quarryman

Spoken Irish from the Cork area and from the North West are really different.

I would pronounce it "Booa chhh a lawn" with a really soft "ch" and not a hard "k". I was taught [beaten into me] Donegal Irish by the "Christian" Brothers. I have also heard it pronounced " bw ay chhh ill lawn " and you wonder why the Irish accent can be a bit strange at times.

blowin

That sounds a bit phonetic for what you might say if you had eaten it and were on your knees in front of the big white bowl . I will try to remember that .

patsonline