buttercups how poisonous?

lalababa

I have young weanlings in grazing with a lot of buttercups for the last week, and they seem to have a taste for them. They are all getting loose.
I also have silage ground that is nearly yellow with them!

Manoffeeling

lalababa wrote: »

I have young weanlings in grazing with a lot of buttercups for the last week, and they seem to have a taste for them. They are all getting loose.
I also have silage ground that is nearly yellow with them!

It may need lime.

iverjohnston

If buttercups were poisonous, half the cattle north of a Galway/Dublin line would have died years ago!

Muckit

I have a serious amount of them in my silage ground, I'd say easily 30% Really pissed me off when I walked it:mad: So I sprayed for them on Tuesday evening. It will be 3weeks or so before will be cutting so should be well dead by then and I would be hoping to have nice aftergrass that actually has some grass in it!! It's working out at around €11/acre for spray and did it myself so I feel it's money well spent.

Last year wasn't a hectic year for grass but was a great year for weeds such as the creeping buttercup that just love water logged soil!

reilig

Mildly poisonous when growing is what our vet said. But An animal would never be able to eat enough of them to poison themselves.

Definitely not poisonous when made into silage or hay!

whelan1

lalababa wrote: »

I have young weanlings in grazing with a lot of buttercups for the last week, and they seem to have a taste for them. They are all getting loose.
I also have silage ground that is nearly yellow with them!

thanks for putting this post up the day i put my cows to the" buttercup field" will be awake all night now:o

Dampintheattic

Been putting a young bull and a cow into the yard daily, to give a bit of nuts to the bull to keep his strength up.
There is about 100 meters of lane way up to the yard, with a fair few strong leafy docks. Notice the cow in particular goes mad for them. Left her wander around the lane this evening for an hour or so.
Docks cleaned! :-)
Never saw this before.

theaceofspies

lalababa wrote: »

I have young weanlings in grazing with a lot of buttercups for the last week, and they seem to have a taste for them. They are all getting loose.
I also have silage ground that is nearly yellow with them!

What % of the ground are the buttercups covering? is it infested with them?

lalababa

Perhaps 20% in the grazing, but they ate them before they started on the grass! Around 30% in silage at a guess.