Ragwort Clearance

It's that time of year again.
Common Ragwort (Senecio jacobaea) contains pyrrolizidine alkaloids which are poisonous to horses, other farm animals such as sheep and cattle and also to wild animals such as hare and deer. It is important for horse owners and horse pasture owners to recognise and control this potentially fatal plant.

Ragwort acts as a cumulative poison, eventually destroying the liver. A small intake of ragwort over a long period can be just as damaging as a larger intake on a single occasion.
More Ragwort facts.....

Little Mead has a flourishing population of this poisonous weed that needs to be pulled up by the roots and disposed of safely before it flowers and has a chance to disperse it's seeds for future years.

It is a very time consuming, labour intensive job and we have been doubting our ability to cope with it adequately ourselves, so imagine our delight when a detachment from the Royal Signals Regiment from Blandford arrived on Saturday and spent most of a very hot day in Little Mead pulling our Ragwort and hauling it away for safe disposal.

We are deeply grateful to Tony Heaton , the Director of Holton Lee, who was hands-on helping with the removal with a Quad bike and trailer, and to these young men from the Royal Signals who have done such a valuable job for us.

No photos unfortunately because we had a visit by Montacute School with a large group of young people both riding and driving as activities towards their Duke of Edinburgh awards.

All in all a very productive day.