# Buttercup's Good Or Bad??



## stano40 (Jun 5, 2010)

I recently have been talking to a friend of mine who has a buttercup infestation in her hay field so I was curious as to how harmful the buttercup was to livestock.

I found this site on buttercups which I found surprising.

http://www.canr.uconn.edu/ansci/articles/butter.htm

It seems the fresh buttercup can be dangerous to grazing livestock but once dried seems to have no ill effect.

How dangerous are buttercups to grazing goats?

bob


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## mossyStone (Jun 5, 2010)

I have buttercups this yr coming up in places , my goats do not touch them..... Last yr we hayed this feild and they ate the hay no ill effects....


Mossy Stone Farm


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## patandchickens (Jun 5, 2010)

They are somewhat poisonous to all livestock that I know of; however they are also bitter-tasting and animals do not normally eat them, so it is pretty unusual for poisoning to actually occur.

Because they are not kill-ya-dead-right-away or irreversably-fatal-by-the-time-a-problem-is-noticed type poisonous plants, most people do not sweat it too much if there are some in an otherwise-reasonable pasture.  It is more of a potential problem to have them in a pasture that gets eaten down to the nubbins, such that animals may turn to buttercups as an alternative to nuthin'.

Generally they area  sign of nutrient-poor and compacted soil, often in areas that are flooded and then stomped around on when wet. So having a significant amount of buttercups in a pasture is usually a wake-up call to try to do some soil improvement 

Good luck, have fun,

Pat


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## stano40 (Jun 5, 2010)

The buttercups appeared when they fertilized their field.  Would the fertilizer acted as a growing medium for the buttercups?

I don't know what type of fertilizer they used, but I know they compost the horse and camel waste from the barn.

bob


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