# Good, Bad, & Ugly about Grazing Fescue



## vhaby (Dec 30, 2009)

We have endophyte infected fescue on about 10 acres of bottomland soil. Here it grows as a cool season perennial so our yearling heifers are grazing it now along with volunteer ryegrass in a 25 acre pasture.. By late May and June the fescue puts up seed heads and goes dormant. At that time common bermudagrass has greened up for grazing on the bottomland along with common and Coastal bermudagrass on the upland soils in that pasture. We don't plan on haying the fescue, just grazing it. We have some knowledge about the effects of fescue on cattle, but many of you to the north and east of here have fescue and know a lot about it's good and bad points. I'd like to read your opinions.


----------



## brandenburgcattle42 (Sep 6, 2012)

Really can have a negative effwct on the cattle we start out cattle on a endophyte fighing mineral and protein tub made by ADM Alliance april first to help fight the toxin


----------



## Tim/South (Dec 12, 2011)

Fescue endophyte varies from field to field. The only real way to know how toxic a field's endophyte is, is to test that specific field. That is why it took so long for the endophyte to be discovered. One field of the same strand contained little, another field of the same brand name might contain alot. The amount and type of endophyte a field contains does not vary from year to year. Either a person got luck or they did not.
Just by observation a person can usually get a good idea. If cattle are doing well, look to be gaining, have a healthy coat, then the field probably contains a very low percentage of harmful toxins.
Cattle consuming a large amount of unfriendly endophyte do not gain well. They have an "off" look about them.

Once the endophyte was isolated, seed companies first made an "endophyte free" fescue. That proved non beneficial because fescue needs an endophyte to make it the hardy grass it is.
Then the different endophytes were isolated and those unfriendly to livestock were removed. This is called Endophyte Friendly Fescue.
QMax is a brand name of an endophyte friendly fescue. It is very pricy. It is billed as not having the negative effects on livestock (even pregnant mares) that the original fescues did.
We lost some yearlings in the early '80's because of grass tetany on an adjoining leased pasture. The Vet said the endophyte compounded the toxicity and probably caused the deaths rather than just a severe belly ache.
We pulled everything off the pasture and laced store bought feed with HiMag mineral. Fed them 2 weeks and turned them back in with no ill affects.
The grazing bovines did alright on the fescue (old time Tall 31) in part because they had access to a nice Bermuda pasture as well. We also placed two mineral feeders full of HiMag in the fescue pasture.
I believe your ryegrass will also help to dilute any unfriendly endophyte if it exists in your fescue. 
There is a chance your fescue is naturally clean from harmful endophytes.


----------



## Vol (Jul 5, 2009)

Fescue here in Tennessee does not go dormant in the summer. It is a cool season grass but manages to grow, albeit very slowly even in the hottest months. It is dormant basically 2 months in December and January (approximately). Another way one can tell if endophyte fungus(high levels) is affecting cattle is that it causes cattle to slobber excessively and also causes heat in their lower legs. This makes them want to stand in water and cuts down on their grazing(during warm months). My fescue areas were tested and were 96% infected and it sure hurt our cattle when we used to carry them. I have since removed about 75% of the fescue. The good about fescue is that is extremely tough, drought resistant, and can withstand heavy overgrazing. It takes abuse as well as any grass I have ever seen. I do not know how many of these traits endophyte friendly fescue have retained. One other thing is that here it will grow on almost any soil type....even the poorest soil types. It is very persistant.

Regards, Mike


----------



## brandenburgcattle42 (Sep 6, 2012)

We have been fighting it for years . We out an endophyte fighing mineral and protein tub made by ADM Alliance. We have had severe foot problems due to fescue and even caught the cows climbn in the water tank to cool their feet off. We have been tearing out pastures each year and turning them to hay to renovate the pasture into something good. They use to say the endophyte was only in the seed head but now they say its in the whole plant. My thoughts r get rid if it or graze it dring late fall or winter when it may not effect them as bad.good luck!


----------



## vhaby (Dec 30, 2009)

Thank you guys for the helpful information about feeding cattle that are grazing fescue. Before we fenced off this 25 acre pasture and had the cows grazing 48 acres, we occasionally had cows go lame in one leg. This likely was a form of foot rot as they soon overcame the lameness following a couple of injections of DuraPen. If this had been fescue foot, would it have responded to penicillin? Other than that, we have not noticed rough hair coats.

I'm wondering about taking out the fescue, establishing Jiggs bermudagrass in this bottom and seeding white clover and rye/ryegrass in place of the fescue. The problem with rye/ryegrass is that it needs to be reseeded every fall and sometimes this bottom is quite wet, limiting planting anything on it. Additionally, this is feral hog heaven as they tear it up quite badly. A hired weed sprayer quit on me while spraying this bottom because he said he couldn't keep his front tractor wheels on the ground. Guess he wanted to cover ground faster than needed to spray this field.


----------



## brandenburgcattle42 (Sep 6, 2012)

You bet it could be fescue foot. Grazing it when its cold is not bad. Re planting is a good move if it allows you to.


----------



## NDVA HAYMAN (Nov 24, 2009)

The only grass that is tougher than fescue around here is Johnson grass!


----------

