Growing concerns over ragwort in far north
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A CROFTER in Lyth has highlighted a growing problem in Caithness that has the potential to kill animals.
Donna Mather lives at Balladen croft with her husband, son and a variety of animals that she is very mindful over with regard to ragwort poisoning.
"When I moved to Caithness in 2012 I was really pleased to see there was next to no ragwort growing here," said Mrs Mather.
"If I saw a piece growing at the side of the road I used to stop and pull it out."
Since that time, however, Mrs Mather says that there has been an explosion in the amount of the killer weed across the county.
Ragwort tastes so bad that animals are repelled by it but when it is inadvertently harvested into bales of hay for feed it can make cattle and horses extremely ill through serious liver damage and even kill them.
Maurice Pottinger, a retired farmer in the Reay area, talked about a case he knew of in which 10 cattle died.
"Sheep can eat it with no problem but when it's fed in hay to cattle it'll kill them. Pennyland lost 10 cattle in a oner, some years ago, because ragwort was in the feed."
Local agricultural commentator Willie Mackay who travels Caithness extensively on his AI cattle breeding duties said: “Ragwort, the yellow flowered noxious weed, is quite a serious problem across the county particularly around the edges of farm fields and along our roadside verges – it's dangerous because of its poisonous qualities.
"It can be controlled by powerful weed killers but the best way is to dig it up from the roots and burn it with gloves on because the toxins can affect humans through the skin."
Mr Mackay says that most grazing farm animals will avoid the plant but the danger is when ragwort is harvested accidentally during silage and hay making operations and "gets churned up into a silage pit or hay bale where the toxins get mixed up with the grass and eaten by the livestock".
Mrs Mather thinks that the increase in ragwort across Caithness is related to changes in Highland Council policy with regard to cutting grass and weeds at road verges.
She said: "They stopped mowing a lot of the verges and when it grows there the seeds drift into fields. Because Caithness is very windy the seeds can fly off and cover a field very, very quickly."
She thinks that cuts in farming subsidies and wetter winters, in which the ragwort seeds can take root, also play a significant part in the growing problem.
Owning four ponies, Mrs Mather said she is "very careful" about where she sources the feed from.
"I know people who have bought horses that seemed to be healthy at first but went downhill after. Their livers had been done in and that was probably ragwort. It can have a cumulative effect and doesn't clear up."
Mrs Mather urges the public to remove the weed from their gardens as seeds can be carried out of towns.
"It's hard to believe but there was not much here in 2012 and it's everywhere now."
