Ragworth in silage

the al kid

Any ideas on what levels of ragworth are tolerable in silage and any guidelines in feeding same.Chap I know rang me to say contractor noticed ragworth when cutting meadow for silage .



TIA Al

whelan1

3kg fresh weight

the al kid

Is that per acre,bale or 3%. Sorry I dont have much info about scenario .


Al

iverjohnston

Unless there was a lot growing in the field, I wouldn't worry. Nothing he can do at this stage anyway.

the al kid wrote: »

Is that per acre,bale or 3%. Sorry I dont have much info about scenario .


Al

Dampintheattic

I would store those bales seperately, so they can be identified at feeding time.
Don't just throw the bales at the barrier, and let the cattle eat ad lib.

Fork the stuff in manually, and try to pick out what can be seen.
I know I have around 20 bales, off grazing ground, which could have some ragwort. That's how I intend to feed them. Also walked the field before baling and pulled what I could see.

Dampintheattic

According to this article, a single ragwort plant, in a bale of sialge, can leach off enough poison, to efect the whole bale. Thereby, potentially killing several animals, and not just the one which might eat the actual ragwort plant itself:eek:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2009/12/03104249/2

whelan1

i hate ragworth

pakalasa

Good article.
It's a biennial plant too (2 year cycle). So it doesn't flower at all in the first year. I guess, that's why sheep grazing it works so well.

yellow50HX

havent seen any of it around our place this year (Yet). will walk the silage fields when they are cutting them this weekend just in case any pop up. spend ages in the rain last summer pulling the feckers.