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As temperatures begin to warm up across the state, our warm season pastures are beginning to green up and many are in the process of determining what forages will be utilized for the next few months.  The pastures throughout Georgia are dominated by warm season perennial forages bermudagrass or bahiagrass, that are relied on heavilyContinue reading “From Villain to Superhero: A Crabgrass Story”

DROUGHT IS A POSSIBILITY in all climates and environments. When I was in Arkansas the driest year on record for my location was right at 30 inches of rain in 2012. This would seem to be a pretty good year in central and western Oklahoma, but was tragic when considering this was a 40 toContinue reading “Making your ranch drought proof”

It is expected that the vast majority of tall fescue in Georgia and other places in the U.S. is infected by the toxic endophyte, but there is a lack of clear and precise information about the nature and extent of endophyte infection in the tall fescue stands. To address this lack of information, we conductedContinue reading “Just how ‘hot’ is tall fescue?”

Kentucky 31 (K31) tall fescue is without question the dominant forage species and cultivar in Missouri and it is for good reason. E.N. Fergus, forage specialist from the University of Kentucky in the 1930s and 1940s, did a great favor for the livestock industry, when he propagated K31 fescue. Fescue in general is palatable withContinue reading “Novel Endophyte Fescue Conversion begins in the spring”

Nearly 98% of Missouri’s pastureland is tall fescue infected with an endophyte that can cause fescue toxicosis in grazing livestock. Fescue toxicosis lowers reproduction rates, milk production, gain and weaning weights. It also causes health problems, including lameness and heat stress. By replacing toxic fescue with other forages, producers eliminate animal exposure to the harmfulContinue reading “Evaluating costs and benefits of renovating endophyte-infected pastures”

In 2013 we killed about 25 acres of our Kentucky 31-based pastures and started using annuals to upgrade our forage program, with future conversion to Novel Endophyte Tall Fescue in mind.  We really liked the winter and summer annuals for our young growing stock, and for the pasture-based beef program that was developing at thatContinue reading “Triple Creek Journal: Our worst year for winter annuals ever!”

Spaces remain for both the Tennessee and Maryland Novel Tall Fescue Renovation Workshops on March 23 and 30th, respectively. Program includes experts from around the country, educational materials, hands on demonstrations and lunch! For more info or to register, visit our workshop page here: https://grasslandrenewal.org/workshops/

Earlier this year, Matt Poore made a New Year’s resolution to convert acres of toxic tall fescue to novel endophyte fescue on his farm (see previous Novel Notes article). I jumped on the bandwagon and made the same resolution. Even though the non-toxic seed that completes these fescue conversions won’t go in the ground untilContinue reading “Keeping Your New Year’s Resolution: Tall Fescue Replacement Information”

We planted our first novel endophyte tall fescue in the autumn of 2000.  It was a difficult time for us as my dad had suffered a major heart attack in late September and we were all at the hospital in Lynchburg when we should have been planting the fescue.  The planting, which had been plannedContinue reading “Triple Creek Journal:  Renovating a novel endophyte tall fescue pasture”

Cool-season perennial grasses like tall fescue, orchardgrass and bluegrass are very important in many pasture systems. Each of these grasses only produces seedheads during the spring, and managing to prevent those seedheads from reaching maturity will improve the quality of the pasture during late spring and summer, and will be a critical first step inContinue reading “Control Seedheads in Cool Season Forages for Improved Pasture Quality and Effective Renovation”