Fescue in Hay Crop

[Triple 7 Farm]

Is it OK to have about 20% fescue seed in my Hay Crop? What about pasture mix??

We've been looking into the best type of seed mix to replant our fields and pastures. Everything in my area has some amount of Fescue in it, mostly all 20% & above. Per our feed mill (my Husband also works for this company, so they've spent an awful lot of time looking at all the seeds and %, etc.) they told him the best is to just plant "plain old Horse Pasture Mix" in the fields (does contain a larger % of fescue & I know I'd have to keep the pregnant mares off in the later stages of pregnancy).

So, DOES IT MATTER IN THE HAY? Since It'll be dried out by the time they're eating it, the acid from the Fescue would no longer be there. They're telling me that there is no way to get away from the Fescues unless I plant all clover, alfalfa, timothy mix (which if I could, I'd plant all my hayfields that way, but once all the fertilizer, people to come in to replant, etc. I can't afford the cost of just those seeds in the crops as we have a large amount of hayfield land, not just 10-20 acres).

What would you recommend for Wisconsin that's going to be of a higher quality that won't contain so much Fescue if 20% Fescue isn't OK or Not OK at all in the hay??

Thanks yet again!!

 

[kdhminis]

Hi - I understand what you are going through - we have 80 acres and can't just kill all the grass and reseed & fertilize the entire place. We too have mixed fescue & lespedeza in our horse pasture (mini horse pasture and our regular size horses pasture). I wish it were all brome or something else too. We have mini's in basically a wooded area that has orchard/fescue mix grass & their drylot for about 1/2 of the daylight hours; then we turn them into the pasture area that is mixed fescue/lespedeza grass; then put them in their drylot at night. So far haven't had any problems. However we currently have 3 mares that are pregnant and we had to pull them completely off of the pasture during their last 2-3 months until due. Our hay pasture is brome/fescue/and some clover - and that is what they all eat for hay every year (including the pregnant mares). I don't know what % of fescue is in our hay field - but it does contain alot of brome finally!! (Before we had horses it was a red clover hay field - for cattle - but we finally quit reseeding clover every year and in certain sections of the hay field it is finally very nice brome (some fescue I'm sure). One of our regular size horses does have an issue with founder in the lush spring - when the fescue is very new and green - we really have to watch him and sometimes pull him off the pasture for awhile. We are going to try to turn the mini's pasture at least into a different type of grass - as we can. We have only had the mini's for about 1 year. Everyone around here seems to have the fescue grass - and there are a lot of miniature horses and regular horses in this area (Missouri). I'll be watching your post to see what others suggest for a larger size farm.

 

[Bess Kelly]

The endophyte will still be in the hay. Plus, any seed just replants itself so you have an increasing amount of "whatever" grass is growing.

If you have never experienced the problems of a fescue challenged pregnancy and foaling -- don't.

Pull the mares off of the pasture and do not feed the hay you describe. Normally 90 days prior to expected foaling will clear them, especially since you do have a mixed forage. But, I would be sure to have a few vials of domperidome available and the vet on alert for issues. On a fescue pasture I had many yrs ago, I had 16 foal losses in one Spring, 2 mares had c-sections in one week

That said, not all fescue carries endophyte. There are types without it. AND the strength of the toxin can change from year to year depending on the weather, fertilizer, stress on the plant, etc. It is through the whole plant, not just the seeds. It can be tested but, with mixed pasture you will have a harder time isolating just the fescue to test.

 

[joylee123]

[SIZE=12pt]Can you have the seed tested to make sure it's endophyte free?[/SIZE]

Joy

 

[dragonfur]

Talk to your veterinarian. There is a drug he can give your pregnant mares, starting a couple of months before they're due to foal. It offsets the hormonal disruptions caused by endophytes.

I lost an exquisite blanket-hipped Appy colt in 2006 due to endophyte toxicity. I wish I had known about that drug then. Actually, I wish I had known about the fescue in my hay then. I bought from a dealer I had used for several years. He told me he had dealt with the hay grower before, and that it was fairly good hay (considering the horrendous drought we were in that year--the lake I live near was only 38% full, 18 feet below normal!). After I told him about the foal being stillborn two weeks early, he said, "Well, I've never bought from him before, so I had no idea just what quality of hay he had." Needless to say, that guy is no longer my hay dealer! Lying to me is bad enough. Costing me the one and only foal I was expecting . . .

Fescue with endophytes tends to be hardier than endophyte-free fescue. If you seed with guaranteed endophyte-free fescue, within 3 to 5 years, the infected fescue will have taken it over. Those who grow fescue for forage have to burn it off and reseed every 3 or 4 years.

Check out the articles on TheHorse.com. (You have to sign up and register to gain access to most articles, but it's free, and well worth the minute it takes to do so. There's a tremendous amount of good equine medical/research information on there.)

Sunny

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[Triple 7 Farm]

Thank You all for keying me in a bit more. I guess the seed my husband & his boss were talking about using is guaranteed endophyte-free. I know we'd probably be redoing the fields in another 3-5 yrs after being hayfield anyhow. I guess I'd just get it tested every year in the meantime to see.... I'm going to be doing some more research so I have it all worked out before spring comes to start planting.

I'm so sorry for your losses, you all. I know we all will go through it, some more than others. Losing anyone is really hard to take, but then to top it off when it's the only one & one of the quality/color you were hoping on seems to make it so much worse.

I lost 4 last year and it was all I could do. And they were all 4 that I wanted to keep (2 colts, 2 fillies).

So this year I'm on even more "pins & needles." I wonder if that could have been the reason I lost the 2 colts- they were born dead & I never had them tested to know for sure, just had my vet (which I no longer use after I lost my 2nd filly that was alive @ birth & he wouldn't come out for an emergency visit @ 10:30 as she was a newborn foal "Survival of the fittest" was basically what he said) check the mares over & that was about it- He thought it was pointless to "do anything with a normal looking, full term, dead foal." So now I've got an older vet that also raises Minis that was a vet for my Great Grandpa & Mom & now, even though he's not taking new clients, decided to take me in!

(He's not "old", but an older gentleman so I trust him- especially with working on Minis). So this year I feel more confident on that part atleast.

Again, Thank You all for your help. I'm going to continue on in my research for the best seed field for the minis (we don't feed anything else, don't sell off the hay, etc).