# Tall Forage Fescue



## CantonHayGuy (Sep 25, 2008)

Can anyone tell me if tall forage fescue is bad for pregnant mares? The brand of seed I used to plant my field was Millborne; according to the mixture it contained 10% tall forage fescue. We will be acquiring a mare that is due to foal in July and my wife says fescue is not good for pregnant mares; especially in the last few months. Appreciate any help.


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## Production Acres (Jul 29, 2008)

tall fescue+ (endophyte infected) is very harmfull to all pregnant animals. In horses, it causes prolonged gestation, enlarged placenta, and a complete abscence of milk. Additionally, if the mare goes an extra month in her gestation the foal often becomes too large to pass through the pelvis and will have to be delivered via c-section or via a wire saw, or both die.
Max-Q fescue is -(endophyte free) and there may be a few other varieties, but I for one cannot tell teh difference looking at 2 blades of grass between KY-31 fescue and Max-Q fescue. Put the mare in a dry lot the last 60-90 days of her gestation and feed fescue free hay- and don't guess either. put her on alfalfa, timothy, orchardgrass, brome, prairiegrass, teff, etc.


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## CantonHayGuy (Sep 25, 2008)

PA,

Thanks for the info; better safe than sorry.


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## Don ALLAN (Jun 4, 2008)

What about creeping red fescue? People in our area pasture their horses on it and I sell a lot of it to horse people and they love it. I have been telling them that I have never heard of a problem with it. Have you?


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## prairie (Jun 20, 2008)

CantonHayGuy said:


> Can anyone tell me if tall forage fescue is bad for pregnant mares? The brand of seed I used to plant my field was Millborne; according to the mixture it contained 10% tall forage fescue. We will be acquiring a mare that is due to foal in July and my wife says fescue is not good for pregnant mares; especially in the last few months. Appreciate any help.


The following was a reply by Jim Gerrish to a question about tall Fescue on an another e-mail discussion group I take part in. He says it better than I can.
Jim Gerrish was formerly with the university reseach farm at Linneus MO, and has extensive experience with tall fescue.

Brad
NE Nebraska

"Tall fescue (Festuca arundinacea) is not a native plant, however there are a number of native fescues in North America. The most important ones are rough fescue, which grows in the northern Montana, Idaho, and Washington. Other fairly common ones are Idaho fescue and sheep fescue. Tall fescue has its origins in SE Europe to SW Asia.

Tall fescue is the species associated with fescue toxicity. Endophyte infected simply means there is a fungus that lives entirely inside the plant (endo=inside, phyto=plant) with no outward manifestations like spores, leaf lesions, or other typical fungal structures. This fungus provides a number of benefits to the plant including insect resistance, disease resistance, and drought tolerance. It does this by producing what plant physiologists call defense proteins or what we more often refer to as alkaloids. Unfortunately, most of these alkaloids are mildly to somewhat toxic to grazing animals. There is nothing in infected tall fescue that is directly lethal to cattle or sheep.

Once researchers discovered the fungus to be the cause of fescue toxicity, they figured out how to remove the fungus from the plant and created endophyte free varieties. The downside was removing the endophyte took away the insect, disease, and drought resistance. The relationship between the grass plant and the fungus is symbiotic. Both organisms benefit from the association. Endophyte-free varieties do not persist very well in high stress environments.

The next step in the fescue story was the development of what are termed novel or friendly endophytes. These are strains of the original fungus that produce defense proteins that are not toxic to livestock, but still protect the plant from insects & diseases. Max-Q fescue is a friendly endophyte variety.

The fungus only transmits thru the seed. A plant that establishes as endophyte-free will always be endophyte-free. The fungus can die within the plant in certain situations, but rarely occurs in the field.

My experience is that endophyte-free varieties perform reasonably well north of I-70 (A line drawn from Lawrence KS to Washington DC). South of that line, the novel endophyte varieties are a better choice. Endophyte free varieties also do very well throughout the Intermountain West with irrigation.

Wall SD would not be a good tall fescue location unless it were irrigated. Tall fescue needs a minimum of about 24-26" precip to be productive.

Infected tall fescue can be reduced thru managed grazing by paying attention to timing of grazing and residual management. It thrives under heavy grazing and if repeatedly grazed to a very short residual (<2"), almost any pasture in the "fescue belt" will move towards fescue dominance. Interseeding red clover and then allowing it to stockpile through midsummer of the second season of the clover crop is a good way to smother infected tall fescue.

Hope this helps,"

Jim Gerrish
American GrazingLands Services LLC
2222 Pahsimeroi Road
May ID 83253

Tele: 208-876-4067

Cell: 208-940-1702

[email protected]

Visit us at http://www.americangrazinglands.com


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## prairie (Jun 20, 2008)

CantonHayGuy said:


> Can anyone tell me if tall forage fescue is bad for pregnant mares? The brand of seed I used to plant my field was Millborne; according to the mixture it contained 10% tall forage fescue. We will be acquiring a mare that is due to foal in July and my wife says fescue is not good for pregnant mares; especially in the last few months. Appreciate any help.


Canton HG,

Now that Jim Gerrish has us all up to speed on tall fescue, I'll give you my advice. For whatever it is worth.

We have pretty well established that infected tall fescue is generally a bad thing. The only way to be sure tall fescue is safe is to test it for endophyte infection. South Dakota State University Extension Forage Specialist, Peter Jeranyama, should be able to help or at least get you pointed in the right direction. His contact info is as follows:
Telephone: 605-688-4754 
 E-mail: [email protected] 
http://plantsci.sdstate.edu/Faculty/jeranyama.html

Many seed companies use tall fescue in pasture mixtures, mainly because it is usually cheap. Typical cheap varieties used are Ky31 and Fawn. Both are very coarse and rough leaved, making them not very palatable. Because they are not very palatable, In areas where tall fescues thrive, they can tend to dominate a stand over time.

To complicate things even more KY31 is available as infected, low infection, and endophyte-free. Fawn is supposed to be endophyte-free, but can also be found with low infection. So if the variety in the mix was either Ky31 or Fawn, assume it is at least low infection until proven otherwise. Again in areas where tall fescue thrives, the infected plants will tend to survive better and dominate a stand over time. I do not sell KY31 or Fawn for the above reasons.

We use tall fescues in some of our mixtures, but only endophyte-free or novel endophyte. Both of which are safe for pregnant mares. 
In grazing mixtures usually only soft, lax leaved varieties are used. They have much improved palatability and feed values.
For hay, silage and stockpiling more traditional upright, semi-coarse leaved varieties are usually used. These types tend to yield more and when stockpiled hold their feed value better.

Meadow fescue and creeping red fescue which are also sometimes included in forage mixtures are "safe".

At a 10% rate in the mixture I would be doubtful that infected fescue would be a problem, but no guarantee. Also unless you are on a high fertility and high organic matter soil, I doubt that the tall fescue will dominate the stand.

The bottom line is that tall fescue in mixtures can work well, but variety selection is very important.

Brad
NE Nebraska


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