After checking all things small and hairy and Shetland pony, spreading Sudocream on the relevant noseys, I took my empty plastic sacks and started the arduous task of pulling up ragwort.
I thought I was all by myself, until I turned around. I had been secretly followed by a small hairy hippo.
Newt had left everyone else behind (you can see them on the right of this picture) to follow his Mum and “help”.
While I attacked the odious weed, Newt supervised.
There is a particular patch of ragowrt in their huge field that needs to be dealt with.
Horses and small ponies will only eat ragwort if there is nothing else in their field to eat but I don’t’ want to take any chances. It has to go.
Ragwort poisoning leads to irreversible liver damage (cirrhosis). Cattle and sheep are also affected – they just get slaughtered before they have long enough to eat it enough to become affected. Eating it does not destroy the toxic plant in any way. A loathesome plant with no merits. I have waged my war on ragwort for many years.
Luckily, this field only has a small patch in one corner. The girls and I are in the fields most days pulling it up. OH takes our full sacks to the dump where it is burned, I hope.
Your ragwort is like my posion ivy or Virginia creeper – a never ending battle.
At least you had a Dark Knight to “protect” you from varmints. At least that is what newt told me he was doing, not sneaking up to forage a forgotten carrot…
I have a wonderful 3 pronged fork which lifts it out like a dream, plus thistles, etc. Bye the way, has Harry realised that the velvet being following him around is actually his mother, Poor Maggie ! Kids can be so hurtful
Good job Frances…ridding your fields of that nasty ragwort! Love your little helper buddy!
Newt’s mane is so…so…OMBRE!!!!
I’ve battled ragwort here for years, too, in the Pacific Northwest. I think our climate is much like yours. Same procedure – empty feed sacks and taken to the dump where it is hopefully buried in the plastic forever. The Noxious Weed Enforcers here (sadly, they’ve been disbanded), once told me the seeds can survive for 20 years or more.
I’ve moved to a new farm, but before I left, I made sure the new owners of my old farm knew what Tansey Ragwort looks like and kept up with digging it. If not they’ll be overrun with ragwort and black berries in a couple of years – and my 20 years of diligent weed pulling will be for naught!
It is all bastard stuff. I feel your pain. xx