It's disappointing to discover that the BBC doesn't feel able to do proper research of all the facts before it commits a programme to air; especially as they are well recognised and respected for their wildlife and environmental contributions.
Last week BBC Radio Lancashire broadcast several programmes vilifying Common Ragwort (Senecio jacobaea), most of which was demonstrably untrue.
Livestock are unlikely to voluntarily eat Ragwort, except maybe when they are short of food or when fed hay which is baled from a field where Ragwort grows; so it's basically a man made problem, again.
Ragwort is only dangerous after it is digested and it's chemicals are poorly absorbed through the skin, so if you need to remove it from pasture, pull it up using gloves and don't eat it.
Ragwort is also probably in decline which could be of more importance - it's the principal food plant of the Cinnabar moth larva - than the spectres created by human hysteria.
For more real Common Ragwort facts follow this link:
Ragwort hysteria: BBC biased and inaccurate again.
For more real Common Ragwort facts follow this link:
Ragwort hysteria: BBC biased and inaccurate again.
