No Wildlife Benefit Found In Fescue

Every year about this time, landowners begin planting fall and winter food plots for wildlife.

Some have the idea that tall fescue is good to plant as a cool-season forage for deer and other wildlife. Not so, according to the Arkansas Game & Fish Commission.

Fescue is by far the worst planting to improve wildlife habitat. It’s toxic to many species of wildlife, cattle and other livestock, the commission stated in a news release.

Because of the toxicity of the plant, most wildlife simply avoids eating it and finds no protective cover from its lack of vertical structure.

Much of the decline in the state’s quail population can be attributed to the planting of fescue, the commission said. The commission is trying to squelch the belief among hunters and land managers that fescue is good to plant for wildlife.

Biologists all over theSoutheast have long agreed fescue is a poor wildlife cover and food source. In fact, nearly all stands of fescue are infected with an endophytic fungus that lives within the plant that produces chemicals causing the fescue to have toxic qualities, the commission said.

Practically all tall fescue seed sold has the fungus in the seed. Fescue seed that has been genetically modifi ed to reduce the toxicity has been developed for use by livestock producers.

Outdoor, Pages 9 on 11/28/2013

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