Tall Fescue planting season is upon us and we have had questions about which is the best Novel Endophtye Tall Fescue to plant. We have posted an article on the Alliance for Grassland Renewal that compares the commercially available varieties of Novel Endophyte Tall Fescues, along with KY-31 and a popular Endophyte-Free variety. The origin story or each variety was developed through a team of graduate students at NC State University that interviewed the breeders and other seed company representatives. This information will help producers determine the best variety for their given situation, and highlights how this amazing technology was developed into commercial products.
Kentucky-31 tall fescue continues to cause problems all across the beef industry, and it is actually a pretty easy problem to deal with. Starting with pastures that need renovation and are convenient for growing or other high performance cattle makes the most sense. The Novel Endophyte Varieties including; Martin 2 Protec, Tower Protec, MaxQ, Texoma MaxQ2, Jesup MaxQ2, Estancia with ArkShield, and BarOptima plus E34 are all good quality forage products, and all are backed by self-imposed quality standards implemented by the Alliance for Grassland Renewal.
We hope that as producers renovate pastures with Annuals, Novel Endophyte Tall Fescue, Mixtures containing Novel Endophyte Tall Fescue, or other forages such as native warm season grasses, that they will keep in mind a key goal is to remove KY31 from as many acres as is practical to meet the goals of their farm. If you are interested in starting to do something about your KY31 problem ask your extension agent or other advisor for help and visit Grasslandrenewal.org
Click here to read the entire Novel Endophyte Tall Fescue Variety fact sheet.
The Alliance for Grassland Renewal is a national organization focused on enhancing the appropriate adoption of novel endophyte tall fescue technology through education, incentives, self-regulation and promotion. For more resources or to learn more about the Alliance for Grassland Renewal, go to www.grasslandrenewal.org
The Alliance for Grassland Renewal 