Two studies were conducted to evaluate high-quality tall fescue hay as a supplement to beef cattle fed low-quality roughages. In Exp. 1, 15 ruminally cannulated Hereford x Angus steers (average weight 390 kg) were blocked by weight and assigned randomly to one of three treatments: 1) tall fescue straw, no supplement; 2) tall fescue straw plus tall fescue hay supplement; 3) tall fescue straw plu...

Epichloë typhina, a clavicipitaceous systemic phytopathogen, was isolated from two varieties and three hybrids of tall fescue (Festuca arundinaceae). The morphology of the fescue isolates was compared with E. typhina isolated from bent grass (Agrostis perennans). In all isolates, conidia were identical and were typical of E. typhina. In fescue grasses the endophyte failed to produce stromata, b...

introduction: worldwide, more than one-third of irrigated land is salinized, and in many regions, fresh water shortage has resulted in restrictions on the use of potable water for landscape irrigation. on the other hand, rapidly expanding population growth is occurring in many arid regions, where soil and water salinity are problems and there are increased demands on limited fresh water resourc...

Introduction There is approximately 35 million acres of tall fescue in the USA, with most of this acreage being utilized in hay meadows and grazed pastures in a region between the temperate northeast and subtropical southeast and commonly referred to as the Fescue Belt. Popularity of the grass is due to its productivity, persistence, and low cost of management. Unfortunately, a fungal endophyte...

Tall fescue (Festuca arundinacea Schreb.) infected with the endophyte Neotyphodium coenophialum ([Morgan-Jones and Gams] Glenn, Bacon, and Hanlin) causes fescue toxicosis in cattle grazing the forage, but effects of the endophyte were considered to be abated soon after removal of the animals from pastures. Tasco-Forage, a proprietary extract from the brown seaweed Ascophyllum nodosum, is a know...

Grass selections including 10 zoysiagrasses, 18 paspalums, 34 Bermuda grasses, tall fescue, creeping red fescue, and perennial ryegrasses with and without endophyte were evaluated for potential resistance to fall armyworm, Spodoptera frugiperda (J. E. Smith), larvae. Laboratory evaluations assessed the degree of antibiosis among >70 grass lines to first-instar fall armvworms. When all parameter...

Tall fescue grass cultivars with or without endophytes were evaluated for their susceptibility to Meloidogyne incognita in the greenhouse. Tall fescue cultivars evaluated included, i) wild-type Jesup (E+, ergot-producing endophyte present), ii) endophyte-free Jesup (E-, no endophyte present), iii) Jesup (Max-Q, non-ergot producing endophyte) and iv) Georgia 5 (E+). Peach was included as the con...

A historic profile of endophyte-induced tall fescue toxicosis is presented. A chronology of events is presented, beginning with the importance of finding Balansia-infected grasses in a tall fescue pasture in north central Georgia. This initial finding was followed by the discovery that another related endophyte was present in tall fescue and other major forage grasses. This species of endophyte...

The 1st outbreak of fescue toxicosis in South Africa was recently confirmed in a Brahman herd at Perdekop, near Standerton, in Mpumalanga province, South Africa. Within 3 weeks of being placed on a fescue pasture in mid-winter, 50 of 385 cattle developed lameness and/or necrosis of the tail. The farmer had established Festuca elatior L. (tall fescue, Iewag variety) on c. 140 ha for winter grazi...

Roughstalk bluegrass (Poa trivialis) is a weed in cool season grass seed production fields in Oregon. Populations of this weed are often greater in fields prone to waterlogging. A greenhouse study was conducted to investigate the morphological and physiological differences between recently established roughstalk bluegrass and tall fescue (Lolium arundinaceum) plants in response to simulated wat...