Frequently asked questions

Ragwort, otherwise known as 'yellow peril', is a tall, yellow-flowering weed that causes irreversible damage to the liver, resulting in an extremely painful death for horses and livestock. Animals may lose weight and suffer depression, loss of appetite, constipation, sunburn and jaundice. A small intake taken repeatedly over a long period can be just as damaging as a large intake on a single occasion. In many cases, eating ragwort can be fatal to animals. If you suspect any case of plant poisoning in your pets, please seek urgent veterinary advice from your own vet.

Hot, dry weather can result in a shortage of grass and lead horses and cattle to feed on whatever weeds are in their fields including ragwort. Towards the end of summer when pastures die out or if it is mistakenly dried along with hay, animals are also at greater risk of eating this highly poisonous weed. Young animals such as calves will sometimes chew at growing ragwort plants out of curiosity, so it is important to make sure that they do not have the opportunity to do this.

Ragwort seeds can lie dormant in the soil for up to 20 years. As a biennial plant, it does not flower until its second year of growth.

Ragwort is registered as injurious under the Weeds Act of 1959; it is the responsibility of landowners to control the weed and an offence to fail to comply with clearance notices when they are issued. If you are concerned that there may be a risk of ragwort spreading to agricultural land please contact the landowner first.

For more information about ragwort or if you want to complain about the presence of ragwort where the landowner is refusing to take action, in England please visit Natural England's website or in Wales you should look at the Welsh Government website.

Please note: Natural England and the Welsh Government do not handle enquiries from the public who are concerned that animals may have eaten ragwort.

Take care!
Wear gloves when handling ragwort as it suspected to be harmful to humans too. Pulling up ragwort plants needs to be done before flowering is complete and it’s more easily done in the spring when the plant is immature. It is important to remove as much of the root as possible so that the plant doesn’t re-grow. Digging out the whole plant will reduce the possibility of leaving behind root fragments.