Of all the Ragwort Removal Methods in common use, spraying is the most effective. The term spraying refers to treating the relevant plant with the appropriate herbicide. The most effective herbicide does depend on the type of Ragwort Plant. The 2 herbicides generally used here in the UK are Round-Up and Barrier-H. Round-Up only works during the active growing phase of the plants life but Barrier-H is said by the manufacturers to work at any time of the plants life.
When the plants are to be treated, it is important that no rain falls on them for several hours to ensure that the poison has been able to work across the leaf before being washed off by the rain.
Once the plants are treated, the livestock must be kept away from the treated area. As the chemicals start to act and kills the the plant; the ragwort will wilt and die. It will also lose much of its bitter taste and become more palatable to the animals. It will remain however, just as deadly as it was in its untreated state. The instructions on the herbicides advise keeping grazing animals away from the treated area for a period of 2-3 weeks; by which time the plant will be non-viable. The plant can then be physically removed by digging it up. The alternative is to let it rot down naturally, but this will take anything up to 6-10 weeks.
The problem with having to keep the horses off the treated area are obvious. It is often hard to come by suitable grazing in the first place., never mind trying to find an alternative. Of course, there is always the electric fencing option; but again, this involves quite a financial outlay, not to mention the hassle of setting it up and moving it round whilst the field is treated section by section.
So, the treating by spraying option is effective, but needs to be done continually for a period of at least 2 years to ensure that any and all newly emerging seedlings are treated.
The bottom line is, that with any of the methods currently in use to get rid of ragwort there are problems and not one of them is straight forward and reliably efficient.
