Tall fescue is the dominant forage grass in MFA's territory. And it is grown on over 35 million acres nationwide. Tall fescue is easy to establish; is tolerant to intensive grazing; has a very long stand life and possesses good late fall/winter grazing stockpile characteristics. When managed properly, tall fescue offers good forage quality, especially for beef cattle.

Despite its popularity, tall fescue has a few weaknesses. It commonly produces toxins associated with a fungal endophyte (Neotyphodium coenophialium) that lives within the plant and is passed from generation to generation through seed.

Fescue endophytes are naturally occurring and probably moved with fescue seed from Europe when it was introduced to North America in the 1800s. In fact, fescue seed heads from the farm that produced the original Kentucky 31 variety were found to be infected with the endophyte when tested in 1982, at least 50 years after establishment.

Weight gains associated with endophyte toxicosis are generally one-half to one-third of those on fescue that does not produce endophyte toxins.

Summer slump, fescue foot and fat necrosis are terms we know all too well. Symptoms of fescue toxicosis in cattle include: weight loss, poor weight gain, lameness, loss of tail tip, rough hair coats, diarrhea, reduced conception rate, elevated body temperatures, appearance of increased respiration, standing in shade and nervousness.

Horses also have potential health problems when grazed primarily on "hot" (infected) fescue. These problems include: poor lactation, reproductive failure, agalactia, prolonged gestation and abortion.

Listed below are the common strategies used to manage tall fescue toxicosis problems.

Toxic fescue management practices

1. Destroy infected fields
2. Develop grazing systems to utilize spring and fall use
3. Feed toxic fescue during cool (not cold) weather
4. Avoid haying infected fields
5. Seed head suppression through clipping or herbicide management
6. Avoid heavy nitrogen use on infected fields
7. Age seed at least 2 years before replanting
8. Incorporate legumes into pastures
9. Plant "novel" endophyte tall fescue.

Fescue toxicosis is not a new subject. Work done in the 1980s led to the development of tall fescue varieties that were endophyte free. However, it turned out that endophyte infected tall fescue is more drought tolerant, has better disease and insect resistance, and will tolerate intense grazing better than non-infected tall fescue. Therefore, the endophyte-free tall fescues are only moderately successful. They possess good forage quality, but poor stand persistence characteristics.

In the November 2000 issue of Today's Farmer, I reported that some naturally occurring endophytes were incorporated into tall fescue germplasm. These endophytes were reported to improve fescue stand persistence, while not producing the compounds responsible for fescue toxicosis. These tall fescues were labeled "novel" or friendly endophyte and have generated much talk over the past few years. Three years later, we have the research base to promote renovating pasture and hay fields with novel endophyte varieties.

Preliminary grazing trials in Arkansas, Missouri and Mississippi have shown beef cattle gains of 1.5 to 3 times greater on endophyte-free or novel endophyte tall fescue compared to conventional endophyte tall fescue. This work also has shown that novel-endophyte fescues have stand persistence comparable to conventional tall fescue varieties.

Are novel endophyte fescues the "silver bullet" of grass-based pasture and hayfields in our region? I personally believe that any agronomic system must be placed on 250,000-500,000 acres, and across several environments and management practices before it can be fairly evaluated. With the novel endophyte tall fescues, we are at the point of initiating that amount of establishment at the farm level.

Currently two novel endophyte varieties are available. They are MaxQ and ArkPlus HM4. Preliminary studies show both varieties perform well, but limited local data is available on either one. MFA's Seed division distributes both varieties.

Sept. 15 to Oct. 15 is an excellent time to establish tall fescue. I recommend using the kill-smother-kill method of renovation. In this scenario, you would eradicate all plants in a field this fall, plant a winter annual such as wheat or rye, eradicate that vegetation after harvest next spring, plant a summer annual such as sorghum-sudan, eradicate that vegetation after harvest and plant tall fescue next October. This system will help insure that the conventional endophyte fescue seed bank will be eliminated, since endophyte viability in non-germinated seed lasts only about one year. Fields, coming out of row crops, summer annuals or alfalfa can be established with novel endophyte fescue this fall if weed control and crop fertility management are addressed.