Hi! I'm new :)

Hi guys,

I'm new to this so thought i'd say hello and introduce myself. We live on 3 acres north of Auckland - have recently just moved here and have a HUGE problem with ragwort and thistle. Any advice to start the battle would be appreciated

Thanks!!

welcome from us down south! Are your neighbours paddocks clean? If not then you will have a thistle problem for ever! Most weed issues relate to a deficiency in the soil. There are lots of knowledgeable LSBers on here who will guide you. Main thing is to relax and not be tempted to spray everything in sight. Heavy grazing or frequent mowing is good, but not horses. See if a neighbour wants to put a few cows on your place. A soil test is good, your local Ravensdown contact can help with this and suggest remediants.

How huge a problem? I'd be delighted if I only had three acres of ragwort! Do you have pictures? Do you know what species of thistle/s you have?

Welcome to the forum!

Ragwort has a cumulative effect on destroying the liver, so you do not want to graze animals on it that you may wish to keep for a few years. You are also in a Facial Eczema area, which also damages the liver of ruminants, so that is another reason to not graze it.
Spraying with Roundup (or other products that contain glyphosate) and MCPA does NOT worry ragwort. If I were to spray, I would use Grazon. But on only 3 acres I would dig out the ragwort and remove the plant and seed heads, and grub the thistles just below ground level and leave them there to compost.

Californian thistle - its everywhere!

Would cows be okay for a year or so to eat around the ragwort and thistle so we could then dig it all out?

It depends on whether or not there's actually more grass than Ragwort. They tend not to eat it unless they either can't help it because there's so much, or because they're starving and that's all there is.

LongRidge wrote: Spraying with Roundup (or other products that contain glyphosate) and MCPA does NOT worry ragwort. If I were to spray, I would use Grazon. But on only 3 acres I would dig out the ragwort and remove the plant and seed heads, . . .

That's interesting, LR. Both glyphosphate and MCPA are on the Waikato District Council's list of recommended herbicides for ragwart, whereas Grazon is not indicated for ragwart on Dow Chemical's factsheet.

But I'm certainly with you on simply pulling them out. I had one paddock particularly infested a few years back and I spent 2 or 3 days pulling every plant - it's not difficult for most, and the bigger ones loosen easily by pushing a spade at the side and loosening the plant first. They've not come back since.

tonybaker wrote: Heavy grazing or frequent mowing is good, but not horses. See if a neighbour wants to put a few cows on your place.

No - not horses or cows! Ragwart is poisonous to both. Sheep and goats are safe on ragwart-infested pasture.

You are fortunate that MCPA will harm your ragwort. Down here, our ragwort is tougher so the MCPA does not do a good job . When we were just out of Thames, in the 1960's, atlacide was the stuff to use. Unfortunately, if it was carried in the pocket and later dried out, it could become explosive. An NZ scientist won an Ignoble Award for his scientific published research into why trousers exploded.

Haha - must be the cold climate down there, LR, that breeds toughness into your weeds! You'll be pleased to hear, though, that I haven't heard about any exploding trousers in these parts in recent years!

It seems that trousers have been exploding for some time (though I have never heard of it in more modern times) - from the Evening Post, 21st April 1933:
paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/EP19330421.2.104

Interesting article, Spark! Absorption of the chemical into clothing, aye? Hmm. From now on, I'll be out there spraying Sodium Chlorate on the ragwart in the nude. :lol: