Confused over Creeping Buttercup

Latest Articles

Confused over Creeping Buttercup

Downsizer Forum Index -> Livestock and Pets

Author

Message

deanom

Joined: 19 Apr 2006
Posts: 93
Location: Lincolnshire

Posted: Tue Sep 26, 06 7:00 pm Post subject: Confused over Creeping Buttercup

I'm looking for some information on Creeping Buttercup.

I've just got some sheep in for the first time. Of the four books that I have, two do not list buttercup as poisonous (The Sheepkeepers Veterinary Handbook, Practical Sheep Keeping). One mentions it in connection with variety in pasture (Successful Small Farming), and one notes it as a weed to be removed by strimming, or in my case, a scythe (Sheep for Beginners).

I had planned to graze the pasture hard, behind electric fencing, before sowing herbs and clover into the pasture, and have been doing this since the sheep arrived ten days ago. However I've just read in a library book (Fieldcraft and Farmyard) that the rananculus family are poisonous.

The section of field that the sheep are in has very little buttercup in, as it was cut by me, with a scythe. The problem areas are where the grass was cut by machine, and the tedder scoured the soil bare in lines down the slope. The buttercup has got itself established in the areas that were left bare. In some places there is a lot of it.

HELP

I would prefer not to have to spray the buttercup off, but do not want put the sheep at risk. If I am to spray, it would need to be done ASAP, before it stops growing.

If anybody can give me a definitive answer that would be great.

If anyone has sheep on pasture with a lot of buttercup, or which originally had a lot in, please let me know.

Thanks

dpack

Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 46209
Location: yes

Posted: Tue Sep 26, 06 7:02 pm Post subject:
i dont eat it sheep is different

gil
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 08 Jun 2005
Posts: 18415

Posted: Tue Sep 26, 06 8:41 pm Post subject:
I thought everyone's fields had creeping buttercup . I don't have a definitive answer, but It's so common, that if it were a serious problem for sheep or other livestock, you would think there would be more written about it (as with ragwort, for instance). If they don't find it palatable, they won't eat it. I never thought about it when putting sheep into a field. Got me thinking now...

Cathryn

Joined: 16 Jul 2005
Posts: 19856
Location: Ceredigion

Posted: Tue Sep 26, 06 10:34 pm Post subject:

I am not going to help this debate much - but much to my horror a friend of mine who went to horse college (technical term that) told me that the tall buttercup is poisonous to horses - now in all my years ....well i have never heard of it anyway but horse are fussy eaters and it is not too much of a problem in our fields. I don't know much about sheep eating habits - are they fussy or would they to avoid anything bitter like buttercup?

tahir

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 45669
Location: Essex

Posted: Wed Sep 27, 06 9:52 am Post subject:

gil wrote:

Got me thinking now...

Me too, we've got plenty of buttercup

Bodger

Joined: 23 May 2006
Posts: 13524

Posted: Wed Sep 27, 06 10:20 am Post subject:

I know buttercups are poisonous but most livestock will not eat them, they just avoid them.
With ragwort again, most livestock will avoid them unless pressed hard.
It becomes a real killer if its cut and made into hay or silage when its far more palatable.
Rightly or wrongly the sheep farmers around here actually use their sheep to control it . Sheep will eat the rosettes to nothing. The farmers say that it doesn't affect their animals but I think that this view is incorrect and that this belief has been adopted because their animals get the chop before the acumulative effect of the ragwort has time to take effect.
All our winter forage is obtained from sheep farmers for this very reason.

lassemista

Joined: 28 Sep 2006
Posts: 608
Location: suffolk

Posted: Thu Sep 28, 06 12:43 pm Post subject:
I read that creeping buttercup is OK in hay, tho ragwort becomes more palatable. Are goats more susceptible than other species? Andrea.

deanom

Joined: 19 Apr 2006
Posts: 93
Location: Lincolnshire

Posted: Thu Sep 28, 06 6:55 pm Post subject: Thanks
Thanks for the replies. I agree that given plenty of forage the sheep would leave the unpalatable stuff, but as I'm using them to improve the pasture, I'm keeping the available space down, so that they really eat it down low. I'm then hoping to overseed in the spring. As it is obviously not a particularly serious threat, I'll keep on using them to clear it out, rather than spray.

	Downsizer Forum Index -> Livestock and Pets	All times are GMT
Page 1 of 1

View Latest Posts