Nick Maclaren wrote:
In article ,
ned wrote:
Kate Morgan wrote:
I will clear mine as soon as I see it as my brother has a horse and
I know how you feel Kate

Can I just suggest that more horses die of laminitis (over indulgence
of rich grazing) than ragwort induced liver failure. (Veterinarian's
observation.) Right then, lets all kill off all the grassland.

My guess is that the ragwort problem is at least partially caused by
the change from farmland to yuppieland. It is certainly the cause
of thistle and similar infestations.

Traditionally, most horses were grazed on land that was also grazed
by cattle. Because of the way that the latter eat, they tend to
'improve' pasture by reducing the tall weed plants. Of course,
once the pasture has got out of control, they will not eat clumps
of them and mowing or similar is needed.

Horses and sheep tend to avoid such weeds, and so allow them to
build up. The inefficient digestive system of horses also allows
weed seeds to be spread by their dung, which is probably irrelevant
to ragwort. This is why the traditional farming viewpoint is that
horses are bad for pasture.

The yuppie aspect is even worse than traditional horse grazing, in
that some of it has the horse at pasture for only some of the year,
thus allowing the weeds to grow during that time even if they would
have been eaten when young. Once they are above a certain size, they
are avoided.

I can't say for certain that the above is true for ragwort as well
as thistles and docks, but my observation of its growth patterns
indicates that it may be.

I think you are basically right. We have seven acres of land on which
we keep two horses. It's fairly poor (sandy) land so although there
is ample space and grass for two horses it's not excessive.

With *only* the horses grazing if we didn't manage the land as well it
would soon end up as a ragwort infested wilderness (which is a bit
like it was when we first took over).

The best way to keep ragwort at bay is to ensure a good dense sward of
other meadow plants once you've eliminated the worst of the ragwort.
Our orchard (where the horses don't graze) has a good cover of grass
which we mow a few times a year, it has virtually no ragwort. The
horse grazed areas get much more ragwort appearing on them simply
because they do get grazed down very short in places. We need to keep
on top of the ragwort and mow occasionally to keep it all in reasonable
trim.

--
Chris Green )