Weeds in kale

theroad

I set some kale for the weanling heifers this winter and it's doing fine except for the parts that are overrun with weeds - mostly redshank and chickweed. I never sprayed it - thought I'd get away without - which was a mistake. Now I'm wondering, will the heifers eat the redshank, and is it likely to cause them problems? Has anyone had this before? Ta.

5live

I fed straw with a good bit of redshank in it with no noticible effects but dont know if fresh on kale would cause a problem. I dont think so but not a vet so wont stake my SFP on it

whelan1

theroad wrote: »

I set some kale for the weanling heifers this winter and it's doing fine except for the parts that are overrun with weeds - mostly redshank and chickweed. I never sprayed it - thought I'd get away without - which was a mistake. Now I'm wondering, will the heifers eat the redshank, and is it likely to cause them problems? Has anyone had this before? Ta.

redshank is toxic if a large amount is eaten

5live

What is a large ammount? Fresh or dried? All animals or pregnant only? just curious

whelan1

we had it in a silage field i reseeded last year , teagasc man said its toxic in large amounts , we where going to top it but the redshank would kill the regrowth iykwim . we put it in the pit as it would be spread out over the pit and they wouldn't be getting it all in one go , if you are feeding straw with the kale i cant see a problem .It WOULD put me off reseeding in the spring again

theroad

Thanks for all that. I've done a bit of digging around (well, googling ) and I think it'll be ok. The chickweed is an all-round good herb that they might not eat anyway. Its worst effect is to smother the kale.

Redshank is toxic in large amounts but the studies seem to have been done on pigs and bullocks fed nothing else for weeks at a time. And even then the first thing that happened was that they scoured. It has something to do with high levels of oxalates - also found in rhubarb - in redshank that latch onto minerals in the gut making them unavailable to the animal. So I'll watch it and see. The heifers will have the kale and baled silage also so they should be alright. If I can avoid a winter of trudging through the kale pulling weeds, then that's all to the good.

By the way, redshank is a good source of vitamin C, but as almost animals all make their own vit. C (humans, other apes and guinea pigs excepted), that's not much good. Maybe I should start eating it myself...

Muckit

theroad wrote: »

By the way, redshank is a good source of vitamin C, but as almost animals all make their own vit. C (humans, other apes and guinea pigs excepted), that's not much good. Maybe I should start eating it myself...

Might save on buying oranges

whelan1

has anyone actually come across redshank posioning ? does it affect them immediately or is a prolonged thing ?

theroad

Dunno. I'm beginning to think the whole poisoning thing might be overdone. There was one study in China done on cows with Staph. aureus mastitis - they were fed 770g of dried redshank leaf for 5 days and it seems to have cured them. Could be just Chinese cows.

5live

Shhh. Dont quote things like that out loud or John Gormless will ban all mastitis tubes and we will be trying to grow redshank to feed to our cows. Or importing chinese cows instead of takeaways. AAAARRRRRGGGGGGHHHHHH:)