Is Kentucky 31 Fescue the best winter grass ever?
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- Опубліковано 6 січ 2023
- Is Kentucky 31 Fescue the best winter grass ever? When it icomes down to a grass that stays green most of the winter and retains its quality, fescue beats them all. There is no other grass that has a heavy sod that holds animals up in extremely wet conditions and keeps your animals out of the mud. I say let them eat grass that was grown on the stem, they can feed themselves and be quite happy doing it. If you want to keep your farm profitable every year, check out my 3 grazing books that I wrote on our website: greenpasturesfarm.net/books/
Man....just got our free choice mineral feeders! Can't wait to put them out for the cows asap!!!
You speak the truth, sir.
Soapbox and all.
I have my cows and sheep out on Tall Fescue dominated pastures, they have not been replanted for 50+ years, and the previous management (until the past 3 years) was continuous grazing. Not sure if in these parts it is KY 31 but it is a tough grass, as you said Greg, nothing can compete with it for winter stockpile. Just fed the first hay of the season..., $275 ton, can't make it on that price. Next season I hope to eliminate the need for feed, but I will have some on hand for insurance. Glad to hear you and your crew are on the mend.
I bought 14 acres last year. Half wooded half old hay field. I mowed the 7 acre field last year and got lime spread. This year I will probably mow it again but eventually the plan is to fence the field and have a few ruminants. I also am working on turning some of the woods into silvopasture. I want to start my herd here and move on to bigger land one day
The pasture looks fantastic ,still tons of forage for your beautiful Bull herd! Lovely 😍
This is why I love the Arizona project so much. If it can be done in the desert effectively and even convert that environment, you don't run out of "good" land. Such an amazing concept.
Good going. Glad it isn't the new big C, and that you, Jan and Isaac are getting better.
Screw developers
Thanks for the video! I wish I had that grass for my animals. The grass seed that I planted last fall is still growing. I went and checked it the other day where I fed some of my animals the past summer and the ground is soft and moist. It felt like I was walking on air. I’m just still waiting for my Christmas present from you 😂. The big corner post pounder 😂. I send a text to my neighbor who’s a welder to see if he would make me one. I might just have to walk over to him and ask. Im sure he is been busy with this warm weather. He also pours cement so any warm weather he does that.
Nice cattle and pasture.
I do hear of efforts to convert Kentucky 31 fields to other things. And I follow those. But you got green grass all winter long! So it must still have its place.
I look forward to to summer videos when native Big Bluestem makes its appearance and is welcomed.
Gregg your right about developers. It is all about the $$ and they don't care about the soil or animals. They want it as cheap as possible and turn a big profit. I hope that you feel better, speedy recovery for Jan also.
Those 20 acre parcels can be productive with some sheep if you can educate them. Get them to do a permaculture
Here in San Antonio, nearly all the treelands are being turned into apartments. No more scenic rides...just an over abundance of apartments, and no place for recreation, or for the wild life.
My mom lived in New Braunfels 35 years ago she went back 3 or 4 years ago didn't know where she was so much development. Texas in exploding. Too hot for me. Pretty country.
Hate to see any farm get broken down for house development
Hello sir. You sure make a whole lotta sense to me. We are trying to get on board with the regenerative farming practices. I’ve been watching some of your videos past couple months. We sit on about 350 acres, maybe 150 of pasture. Have to get perimeter fencing in place so we can start moving the cows as you describe. Currently, we have 11 heffers and one polled bull living in about a 10 acre piece we managed to get fenced w 5 strands of barbed wire. Haven’t been moving them in there, just gave them the whole thing for now. Cows have been here for almost a year now in that same pinned area. I’m trying to get larger area perimeter fenced , so I can then start following your methods of moving the herd as much as I can between working other paying job. Thank you sir for what you do, and hope you guys have successful year ahead
Keep watching, you will learn how to transform your 150 acres, even your other acres. nothing heals the land as well as a diverse perennial pasture, managed using educated observational grazing with ruminants! I would slow down on the barbed wire, use what you see here.
Stop using barb wire! Learn how to build Hi-Tensile electric fence. 10 times easier to build and cheaper than barb wire. Your cows will love you if you start rotating them around your whole farm.
Yes sir. That’s the plan w new stuff. We had bought 25 rolls of the barbed wire and started repairing and following the farms old barbed wire fencing when we started w the cows last march. I’m going to use up the other 12 rolls I have left over to repair an old perimeter ridge fence and will convert to hi tensil moving forward. Didn’t know about it last year, all the neighbors said barbed wire. You know how that goes! Thanks for solid advice and best of luck to you guys. I’ll keep watching from your first videos moving forward.
Happy New Year, Greg. It looks like you’ve left enough land between your fence and the woods to possibly mow that space. Is it your intension to leave a strip of grass there to more easily maintain the area between your woods and fence? Thank you.
I do not live on a farm. I have an acreage within a suburban area of Missouri. I planted Kentucky Fescue 31. It stays green even when dry. I noticed though that I didn't have too many baby animals. In the late 1970s and early ‘80s, it was discovered that KY-31 tall fescue is infected with a fungal endophyte now known as Epichloe coenophiala. There are a few animal problems associated with grazing infected KY-31 tall fescue, however. In ruminants, the impacts include poor reproduction, reduced milk yield, reduced growth, and elevated body temperatures. In horses, the impacts are limited to pregnant females, causing longer gestation length, thickened placentas, foaling difficulties, weak foals, and agalactia. The various animal symptoms from grazing endophyte-infected tall fescue are known collectively as fescue toxicosis.
Learn to manage your Kentucky 31 fescue and it becomes the most profitable forage in your farm. Keep clover in the fescue, don’t graze it off short to the ground, sell the animals that don’t perform on Kentucky 31. Now go put your money in your bank!!!!
Exactly right certain conditions it will harm a cow or kill
i have never seen grass like that coming from Ireland I'm used to seeing green Grass
The cold is going around everywhere it seems right now. I’m also recovering
Several years ago some know-it-all chimed in on how I loved fescue ... well I do not love but learned to love. I would enjoy trying out Johnson grass ... but with the local laws cannot. I replied, "I grow on fescue, never finish on fescue". Well, what do you use ... "any respecting cattleman knows you finish on clover."
I think it’s the worse thing going on is overdevelopment of good land. Around here they don’t do 20 acres lots per house. It’s more like 500 hours on 10 acres. Will double a small town’s population with one development. So sad.
Do you have any opinion of the Fescue hybrids that have been developed for Southern states (Texas) and how they compare to KY31?
KY 31. The cattle obviously love it and are thriving on it. Why do some people hate it?
Toxic fescue for some cattle and horses.
Hi Greg, would you mind explaining how to avoid the toxicity that can possibly come with Kentucky 31? Im wanting to plant some in our pasture but i cant seem to find good information on it.
Tough to see suburban creep, no matter where you are. We are seeing the Metro move south on us here in MN, year over year. All you can do is take the land you control (own/rent) and make it as productive and healthy as possible. - Peter
Yep, do the best you can do with what you have!
What about other types of fescue? Do they have the same winter stockpile abilities? I don't know what kind of fescue I have here. It's wild as far as I know because it just popped up everywhere 🤣 I know a lot of folks in my area plant "tall" fescue in their pastures
Great stuff Greg! How would this fescue do in Northeast Mississippi?
Not sure, you could try a small test plot and see if it grows down there.
Developers love good farmland because it perks. It's cheaper for water and septic. BTW there is a saying here in Florida for folks with acreage that mow and fertilize for the golf course look coined by an urban gardener i follow. Grassholes. Here the problem is all their fertilizer is killing the waterways and causing red tide. Sad.
Also, for all the viewers, Reits and developers are often funded by all OUR 401ks and mutual funds.
It's sad our money works against us.
There is a growing body of research that says Kentucky 32 and other endophyte free fescue varieties are much better than K31. I thought it was just marketing hype but based on the literature, the lack of fescue foot, improved palatability, and fertility improvements seem worth investigating.
That being said, renovating an entire farm with new a K32 stand might be impossible to justify for some, and in those cases diluting with other grasses and forbs is a better option to reduce issues.
Here is the deal: what are your livestock supposed to eat after you nuke your farm with glyphosate? They don’t put that cost in there, I guess they think your animals can live on air. Just follow the money trail from the sources that are telling you to do this. The money ends up in their pocket and you lose your farm. I was lucky, we only did 75 acres and it was extremely painful financially. The worst part was that the Kentucky 31 came right back in 3 years, just about the time we paid off the loan for killing it. Sit on that thorn awhile and I promise you will not do that again.
@@gregjudyregenerativerancher I should have prefaced, for folks like myself who’ve cleared land from scratch, I think it’s a better option if there’s nothing growing. On my farm, there’s about 60 acres of ground that was clearcut pine plantation and then another 15 that was only crabgrass in the summer and nothing in the winter-the rest of the farm is established Bermuda and annual rye that reseeds itself nicely. I wouldn’t touch any of that stuff but as for the cleared and bare ground I’d rather establish something a little better quality and more palatable-my sheep ragweed before they touch K31.
Our sheep winter graze our Kentucky 31 Fescue all winter and thrive on it.
@@gregjudyregenerativerancher Would you recommend just seeding straight K31 and a mix of clovers? Do you think there's any financially justifiable reason for planting other grasses (orchard grass, rye, brome, etc)?
I always heard Kentucky 31 tall fescue wasn’t good to graze because of the endophyte fungus at least for horses, is it different for cows and sheep?
It’s our primary grass, been grazing it for 50 years. Need to learn how to manage it with your grazing.
🎉
Does the brown grass have any nutritional value Greg?
I don’t believe it has much. But the cows need some when everything is green or they will get the runs.
Look at the bulls!!! Do they look like the brown grass has nothing in it???? It’s as good as hay and the bulls enjoy feeding themselves everyday!!
It is only brown on the top.
Why test?
The testing is gonna be a nice revenue stream for the robber barons - and there are plenty of sheep willing to pay
Is there any truth to tall fescue being toxic?
You should have grabbed that for the 90 thousand. Cheap. Maybe you'll get some grass fed beef customers hopefully.
That 20 acres was $300,000 not 90
@@gregjudyregenerativerancher oh I misunderstood you.
Hi Greg and Jan:
My daughter Isabel and I are interested in your beginning grazing school and tried to sign up. But I could not get the "Buy Now" button to work.
Is there another way to sign up? We want to reserve our spots before the spots sell out!
Please let us know if we may answer any questions.
Take care,
Gregg Byrd
Gregg, use the advanced pay pal button to reserve your seats for the beginning grazing school. Email Jan and let her know you want to be in the beginner school. Our pay pal button on our beginner school is not working at the moment.
If you have not already…..send him an email also. He will get back with you. Gregs a busy guy!
@@gregjudyregenerativerancher Thanks! We just paid for 2 spots. Will email Jan about the beginner school.
Does Kentucky 31 change the flavor of the meat?
No
And what do you feed may-august when k31 is toxic?
We have over 20 species of forages mixed in with our fescue.
@@gregjudyregenerativerancher like what red River crabgrass?
Does 31 impart a flavor into the meat?
Not that I can tell.
We've got a 300 acre farm beside us about to be developed into 1 acre housing lots. Should be made illegal to cause that much damage to an ecosystem!
Would it be wise to seed Kentucky 31 Fescue on your entire land.
It does well here in mid Missouri when mixed with other grasses and legumes. You don’t want a solid stand of it, more risk of having toxin issues with it.
@@gregjudyregenerativerancher so let's say I'm just taking over a grain row crop farm, what would be a good seed down mix for Ontario Canada
@normpowell3566 I don’t know the grass species in your area. I would go see what the very best graziers in your area would suggest. 3-4 species of grasses and a legume or two make for some good grazing.
The big F been going around makes you feel like a brick fell on you flu sucks too
Shouldn’t be legal. Build houses near town, zone the countryside for agriculture. How are we going to feed ourselves as a country? Short sighted GREED. Sickening
Our county just lost hundreds of acres to a solar farm project last year. The whole project went under cause they couldn’t get one solar panel across the border from China. Sterilized the ground and put up all this infrastructure for nothing. Some of the best crop land in Texas.
Yes, spraying and mowing your big yard...what a waste.