Ragworth on rented ground

Reggie.

Right I'll try to explain this as simple as I can.

I've been keeping an eye on some 20 odd acres of land that is up for rent every year and i might be in a position to go for it next year when it is next up.

The thing is the current tenant hasn't been too kind to the land. Now nothing that cant be fixed but I noticed this year that there was a good crop of ragworth that appeared. Now his solution was to cut it, bale it and dump the bales into a corner of the land.

If I was to go ahead with getting this land what would be my options for dealing with the ragworth. I know pulling is the best solution but with the amount I seen it would seem like a mammoth task. Are there other realistic options available? Is spraying then successful? Time of year for spraying and how long have cattle to be off the land?

Mooooo

Spray early and late in the year and pull/ top in between. I guess budget for 2 rounds of spray I think March/ April if temps are up and plants are there and then again in sept when the rotation would be stretching out again. Hopefully that would reduce the amount you'd have to pull. They say 30 days i think Topping them would have to be with a topper not a mower in order to mulch it up a bit.

roosky

Sheep, and coincidently i have sheep for sale if your looking for sheep !

ganmo

roosky wrote: »

Sheep, and coincidently i have sheep for sale if your looking for sheep !

second that

mart tomorrow in blessington

Mech1

Im going fishing this weekend, are yous guys sellin them?

Reggie.

roosky wrote: »

Sheep, and coincidently i have sheep for sale if your looking for sheep !

Theres sheep on the land atm

Genghis Cant

Mech1 wrote: »

Im going fishing this weekend, are yous guys sellin them?

I think you're mixing up Ragwort and Ragworm :-)

ganmo

Reggie. wrote: »

Theres sheep on the land atm

not enough if the ragworth is plentyful

Mech1

Genghis Cant wrote: »

I think you're mixing up Ragwort and Ragworm :-)

ganmo wrote: »

not enough if the ragworth is plentyful

Im willing to dig them on any plentyful ground, pm me if close to East coast.

Mech1

I could swap for some chicken feed: http://www.adverts.ie/other/buy-a-mealworm-farm/11202796

J.O. Farmer

ganmo wrote: »

not enough if the ragworth is plentyful

Either that or they weren't on it in time. Sheep will eat ragwort at a very early stage but not when it gets stronger.

roosky

J.O. Farmer wrote:

Either that or they weren't on it in time. Sheep will eat ragwort at a very early stage but not when it gets stronger.

Also be careful not to limit the sheep to ragwort.....it is toxic to sheep too but they have a better resistance to the toxin

whelan2

Spray in the spring at the rosette stage. Normally in March. Problem this spring is that plants were not ready for spraying until into April and alot of people didn't get to spray as the time factor of leaving cattle off for 3 weeks wasnt feasible. I topped were we were supposed to spray and they came back worse. Will spray next spring. You also need to spray 2 years in a row as its a 2 year plant. Frost will hamper the kill, the plant is palatble when dying and if there's frost they wont die right and might have to be resprayed.

Sam Kade

ganmo wrote: »

second that

mart tomorrow in blessington

He didn't get the land yet.

TITANIUM.

Reggie. wrote: »

Right I'll try to explain this as simple as I can.

I've been keeping an eye on some 20 odd acres of land that is up for rent every year and i might be in a position to go for it next year when it is next up.

The thing is the current tenant hasn't been too kind to the land. Now nothing that cant be fixed but I noticed this year that there was a good crop of ragworth that appeared. Now his solution was to cut it, bale it and dump the bales into a corner of the land.

If I was to go ahead with getting this land what would be my options for dealing with the ragworth. I know pulling is the best solution but with the amount I seen it would seem like a mammoth task. Are there other realistic options available? Is spraying then successful? Time of year for spraying and how long have cattle to be off the land?

Best of luck with the new piece of ground if you decide to go for it.
Don't worry about the Ragworth. Id be more worried about what state the soil is in after what sounds like a neglectful tenant. had an awful infestation of them here, and I mean awful. It looked like we were growing rape seed. Went out and bought a sprayer, hit them with Forefront T. It wiped them out in one spray. No need to spray the second year just abit of pulling around fences and headlands that you might have missed. And you can leave cattle in in just 3 weeks.
I even sprayed it out in the middle of summer when they were well up and it still killed them off but they took longer to die off.
Ragworth is easily enough dealt with if people were bothered.

pms7

24D Ester Nov to March
worked great for me last year, must do more now..
But as TITANIUM said soil fertility bigger issue, I'd soil sample it

kowtow

TITANIUM. wrote:

Best of luck with the new piece of ground if you decide to go for it. Don't worry about the Ragworth. Id be more worried about what state the soil is in after what sounds like a neglectful tenant. had an awful infestation of them here, and I mean awful. It looked like we were growing rape seed. Went out and bought a sprayer, hit them with Forefront T. It wiped them out in one spray. No need to spray the second year just abit of pulling around fences and headlands that you might have missed. And you can leave cattle in in just 3 weeks. I even sprayed it out in the middle of summer when they were well up and it still killed them off but they took longer to die off. Ragworth is easily enough dealt with if people were bothered.

Would forefront work now on standing / brown / half dead ragwort as well as the still green plants?

You can't spray from a knapsack for spot treatment I think?

J.O. Farmer

kowtow wrote: »

Would forefront work now on standing / brown / half dead ragwort as well as the still green plants?

You can't spray from a knapsack for spot treatment I think?

Your better leaving until next year. Sprays in general work best on actively growing plants.

TITANIUM.

kowtow wrote: »

TITANIUM. wrote:

Best of luck with the new piece of ground if you decide to go for it. Don't worry about the Ragworth. Id be more worried about what state the soil is in after what sounds like a neglectful tenant. had an awful infestation of them here, and I mean awful. It looked like we were growing rape seed. Went out and bought a sprayer, hit them with Forefront T. It wiped them out in one spray. No need to spray the second year just abit of pulling around fences and headlands that you might have missed. And you can leave cattle in in just 3 weeks. I even sprayed it out in the middle of summer when they were well up and it still killed them off but they took longer to die off. Ragworth is easily enough dealt with if people were bothered.

Would forefront work now on standing / brown / half dead ragwort as well as the still green plants?

You can't spray from a knapsack for spot treatment I think?

No twould have to be growing or green at least to carry the chemical down to the root. I was surprised at what a good job it did on grown ragworth.

I sprayed um with a tractor sprayer that you hit the smaller lad's that are just coming that you might not see and miss with a knapsack.

Looks like he'll have a bit of ground to cover so a tractor sprayer is the only job.

99nsr125

There's not a simple answer to this,
What is your intended use ?
Does it have water ?

Forefront is an awesome spray but it wipes out clover
I bet though the sward and clover isn't great if there's a good crop of Ragwort.

By the sounds of it the price will be on the soft side, get a soil sample try and negotiate a 2 year lease, hit it with Forefront in the spring along with
A bag of 0-7-30 per acre at the same time and gran lime too

While you're waiting for the ragwort to be fully dead ~28 days the gran lime and 0-7-30 will be taking effect. Graze off, pull any ragwort stragglers, bag of Urea and graze away.

Second year spot pull ragwort and it should be like a different field by then
Leaving a good run for the rest of the year hit it with 3 splits of 18-6-12 at a bag an acre each time and gran lime too.

Explain to the owner what you're going to do to help your negotiating position
He'll probably be delighted the someone gives a fųck

Reggie.

99nsr125 wrote: »

There's not a simple answer to this,
What is your intended use ?
Does it have water ?

Forefront is an awesome spray but it wipes out clover
I bet though the sward and clover isn't great if there's a good crop of Ragwort.

By the sounds of it the price will be on the soft side, get a soil sampke try and negotiate a 2 year lease, hit it with Forefront in the spring along with with
A bag of 0-7-30 per acre at the same time and gran lime too

While you're waiting for the ragwort to be fully dead ~28 days the gran lime and 0-7-30 will be taking effect. Graze off, pull any ragwort stragglers, bag of Urea and
graze away.

Mainly for grazing