Balderstone Hall Field Mirfield topsoil reinstated Jan 2019. ragwort weed warning

Balderstone Hall Field Mirfield topsoil reinstated Jan 2019.
The field will have to be seeded with grass seed in April 2019 and treated later in the year with weed killer this will keep on top of the ragwort weed which if it is not kept in check the ragwort will be rife throughout the field in 2020 and spreading out of control to neighbouring fields.
Ragwort is mildly poisonous, but the taste of the plant is usually off-putting to livestock. That’s why it’s not unusual to see horses in fields chomping on grass but leaving the ragwort – clever things.
The danger comes if ragwort that’s been cut and dried gets mixed up in dry hay fed to livestock. The onus is on owners to ensure dry feed given to horses and cattle is clean and fit to eat – just as with anything else they feed their animals.

Nineteen species of the Ragwort genus, Senecio, occur in the wild in Britain, but most of these are garden escapes or other introductions. The main ‘weed’ species is the native Common ragwort (Senecio jacobaea) which thrives where bare ground or thin vegetation allows the development of seedlings. The plant is often biennial, with rosettes forming in the first year that later (usually the next year) develops into a flowering shoot which can tolerate being among other tall vegetation. Common ragwort supports the most specialist insect species, however, the native Hoary ragwort (Senecio erucifoliusci) which is similar in appearance, is also preferred by some insects. The New Atlas of the Flora of Britain and Ireland (2002) shows Ragwort as native and states that ‘the distribution of Ragwort is unchanged from the map in the 1962 Atlas’. In addition, the Countryside Survey (a national scientific study) found no specific evidence of an increase in Ragwort in grasslands (i.e. grazing land) during the period 1990 to 1998. Although they showed an increase in lowland woods and on arable land, neither of these habitats are frequently grazed by horses. The perceived increase in Ragwort abundance seems to be simply a result of increasing awareness.

Regards S Benson