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Many producers are aware of the issue of fescue toxicosis and manage to deal with it in their grazing animals. But what about fescue hay? The question has come up recently about the toxicity of KY-31 infected tall fescue hay.
A study from Tennessee looked at the effect of 3 different maturity stages of Fescue on forage quality and animal performance. Hay was cut at late boot/early heading, early heading, and early milk/seed formation roughly 11 days apart from each stage.
In favorable growing conditions, tall fescue is a hardy, deep-rooted perennial that provides good year-round production of quality feed for many livestock species.
Fescue is the best adapted cool-season grass available for stockpiling (accumulating growth) for use in the fall and winter. Thus it can provide much of the fall and winter feed for a beef cow herd. Tall fescue should be part, not all, of a forage program.
The new consideration is that today’s tall fescue is not the same as your grandpa’s tall fescue. For the first 30 to 40 years of tall fescue use, the mainstay of all fescue pastures was the endophyte-infected Kentucky-31 (Ky31) variety.
Tall fescue hay is a popular cattle hay option thanks to its abundant supply in North America. This hay contains between 7% to 12% protein, depending on the quality of the grass harvested. Even though it is popular, some forms of tall fescue hay can pose a threat to cattle called fescue toxicity.
You might move mares to a drylot area where you can meet their nutrient requirements with hay and concentrate or to a pasture with forage species other than endophyte-infected tall fescue.
Novel endophyte fescue has advantages throughout the year, in grass or hay. Farmers learned many workarounds and tricks of grazing toxic fescue to reduce harm. What farmers and MU researchers learned about fescue now provides lessons in grazing schools.
Tall fescue is the best adapted cool-season grass in Kansas for winter use. Thus, fescue can provide most of the spring, fall, and winter feed for a beef-cow herd.
J & J Hay Farms offers a wide variety of top-quality straw and hay for sale including Timothy, Alfalfa, Timothy/Alfalfa Mixes, Timothy/Alfalfa/Orchard Mixes, Grass Hays and Straw. With over 40 years in the hay business, J & J has developed a dependable supply of equine quality hay and forage products from the top hay producers in North America.