"kay" wrote in message
...

Christina Websell;964507 Wrote:


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.



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.


ISTR that ragwort is a notifiable weed and you are obliged to pull it up
by
law. I might be wrong on this.

yes, you are indeed wrong on two counts.[/i][/color]

I knew it!

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.


Maybe I was thinking of this Act. I did say I could be wrong about it
being notifiable.
I've eliminated it from my land. It took a few years.










--
kay