Quote:
Originally Posted by Christina Websell
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Unless you have horses. They will rarely eat ragwort when it is growing but
when dried in hay they will and not a lot of it causes severe liver damage
up to and including death.
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I did say a reason for not killing ALL the ragwort. Of course you're going to kill it on or next to grazing land. But it is a british native plant, and therefore I don't think it is reasonable to seek to eradicate completely from the UK.
Quote:
ISTR that ragwort is a notifiable weed and you are obliged to pull it up by
law. I might be wrong on this.
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yes, you are indeed wrong on two counts.
1) It is not notifiable. No plants, as far as I am aware, are notifiable. If someone tells you that a plant is notifiable, try asking them who you are supposed to notify ;-)
2) You are not obliged to pull it up, merely to take measure to avoid its spreading IF you have been served notice to this effect by the Ministry (ie someone else has been able to demonstrate that your ragwort is spreading on to their land). It is covered by two Acts
The Weeds Act 1959, which covers spear thistle, creeping thistle, curled dock, broad leaved dock and ragwort, allows MAFF (presumably now DEFRA) to serve a notice on a landowner to take whatever measures are required to stop the weed spreading.
The Ragwort Control Act 2003 provides for the Minister to draw up a code of practice on the control of Ragwort.
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