Preval Meadow Fescue

[DJ54]

I need to re-seed part of my small hay field, due to running short on hay, and buying a couple not so good round bales, with some noxious weeds in them, a couple years ago. When I spread the manure from around the hay feeder with these seeds in it onto the hay field, I got a growth of some not so welcome weeds, mainly Foxtail, and Larkspur. After seeing it during first cutting, I skipped that part of the field, and mowed it down with the flail mower, then continued to mow the regrowth, before getting to the seed head stage throughout the summer. I did this until early Sept., planning on doing a complete kill with Glyphosate. We had an unusual hot spell that was in the upper 80-low 90's, so it was time to spray. Got a good kill, and luckily it was when grass had just been mowed, and very little regrowth.

Looking over some preferred palatable grasses, I came across a "new" old grass. Preval Meadow Fescue. Just wondering if anyone has sowed this on hay, or pasture ground, and what were the results. I'm looking for something more leafy, rather than the Rye Grass that tends to be more stemmy on first cutting. It's OK for second, and third, being regrowth it's more leafy. The horses waste a lot of the first cutting stemmy hay, going for the finer grasses/clover/alfalfa/timothy.

I have found a seed dealer fairly close that handles it, and planning to call them here next week, after the holidays, and see if they do have it in stock, to do some frost seeding late Feb. early March, overseeding the whole field with the Preval. It is my preferred way to reseed/over seed on both hay, and pasture ground, and have always had excellent results. In the product description, it says Preval hashad excellent greminationresults with using the frost seeding method, so that is a big plus. I'll also make a second pass, seeding the kill area with the other mix of red clover, alfalfa, timothy, and probably some bluegrass.

From doing more than several hours of looking at Meadow Fescue's, Preval seems to be the best, of the best. So, thought I'd give it a shot. Just wondering if anyone else has tried it, and what were the results. I'm feeding pleasure horses, so don't need anything too hot, just some 12%-14% palatable belly stuffer.

 

[Jerry/MT]

I need to re-seed part of my small hay field, due to running short on hay, and buying a couple not so good round bales, with some noxious weeds in them, a couple years ago. When I spread the manure from around the hay feeder with these seeds in it onto the hay field, I got a growth of some not so welcome weeds, mainly Foxtail, and Larkspur. After seeing it during first cutting, I skipped that part of the field, and mowed it down with the flail mower, then continued to mow the regrowth, before getting to the seed head stage throughout the summer. I did this until early Sept., planning on doing a complete kill with Glyphosate. We had an unusual hot spell that was in the upper 80-low 90's, so it was time to spray. Got a good kill, and luckily it was when grass had just been mowed, and very little regrowth.

Looking over some preferred palatable grasses, I came across a "new" old grass. Preval Meadow Fescue. Just wondering if anyone has sowed this on hay, or pasture ground, and what were the results. I'm looking for something more leafy, rather than the Rye Grass that tends to be more stemmy on first cutting. It's OK for second, and third, being regrowth it's more leafy. The horses waste a lot of the first cutting stemmy hay, going for the finer grasses/clover/alfalfa/timothy.

I have found a seed dealer fairly close that handles it, and planning to call them here next week, after the holidays, and see if they do have it in stock, to do some frost seeding late Feb. early March, overseeding the whole field with the Preval. It is my preferred way to reseed/over seed on both hay, and pasture ground, and have always had excellent results. In the product description, it says Preval hashad excellent greminationresults with using the frost seeding method, so that is a big plus. I'll also make a second pass, seeding the kill area with the other mix of red clover, alfalfa, timothy, and probably some bluegrass.

From doing more than several hours of looking at Meadow Fescue's, Preval seems to be the best, of the best. So, thought I'd give it a shot. Just wondering if anyone else has tried it, and what were the results. I'm feeding pleasure horses, so don't need anything too hot, just some 12%-14% palatable belly stuffer.

I don't know anything about that particular variety of fescue but if your feeding horses with the hay you may want to stay away from fescue hay unless it is either endophyte free or it does not have harmful endophytes in it. Consult with your County Extension Agent or the local NRCCS office.

 

[DJ54]

I'm aware of the endophytes, and this was one of the top bad endophyte free grasses. I've been doing a little more searching comparing to other endophyte free fescue, and have found a lot has to do with a particular name brand associated with it, price wise. I've found another brand name endophyte free meadow fescue Cajun II which has outproduced MaxQ, which out produced the Preval. As luck would have it, a local feed mill I frequently buy bulk fertilizer, and pasture/hay seed is a local dealer for it. AND, the good news, cost is less than half, per 50 lb. bag of seed. Overseeding rate is 10 lb.per acre, so a 50 lb bag will be perfect for me, as I only have a 4 acre hay field, so I need to grow more, on less.

Guess I'll go with this, and see what happens. I'll save a bit, and sow on the main pasture I save for later in the summer. I have a smaller sacrificial pasture which I let them graze on, to get me through the Spring wet spell, so as not to destroy the better of the two. Spring grass here can have 21% protein, and can cause problems with founder, which I've dealt with several years back. Got a real lacing up from my old Blacksmith, for having too lush of a pasture, even though I just let them out to graze on it, starting 1 hour a time, and over a period of 3 weeks, before letting them out there for 8-10 hours per day. Live and learn...

 

[Jerry/MT]

I'm aware of the endophytes, and this was one of the top bad endophyte free grasses. I've been doing a little more searching comparing to other endophyte free fescue, and have found a lot has to do with a particular name brand associated with it, price wise. I've found another brand name endophyte free meadow fescue Cajun II which has outproduced MaxQ, which out produced the Preval. As luck would have it, a local feed mill I frequently buy bulk fertilizer, and pasture/hay seed is a local dealer for it. AND, the good news, cost is less than half, per 50 lb. bag of seed. Overseeding rate is 10 lb.per acre, so a 50 lb bag will be perfect for me, as I only have a 4 acre hay field, so I need to grow more, on less.

Guess I'll go with this, and see what happens. I'll save a bit, and sow on the main pasture I save for later in the summer. I have a smaller sacrificial pasture which I let them graze on, to get me through the Spring wet spell, so as not to destroy the better of the two. Spring grass here can have 21% protein, and can cause problems with founder, which I've dealt with several years back. Got a real lacing up from my old Blacksmith, for having too lush of a pasture, even though I just let them out to graze on it, starting 1 hour a time, and over a period of 3 weeks, before letting them out there for 8-10 hours per day. Live and learn...

I'm impressed by your pasture management knowledge! I was certified by Washington State University as an Extension Livestock Advisor and most of the horse people I dealt with in Western Washington thought that a weed infested mud bog was a normal horse pasture. It's been 20 years since I lived there so maybe things have changed because between Cooperative Extension, NRCS and the local Conservation Districts, they were really working hard to educate horse people.

Good luck on renovating your pasture.

 

[DJ54]

We're very fortunate here in Ohio to have an excellent Extension service through the Ohio State University. Whether through the main campus Extension HQ, to our very knowledgeable County Extension office Agent's. As mentioned, being I have to grow more hay on less ground than a lot of folks, I do soil samples every 3 years, through the extension office to keep everything up to snuff. Ohio State sadly quit doing soil sample tests about 10-15 years ago, and now go to the University of KY to be done. It takes about 10 days to get the results back, but the local agent goes over the report with you in his office. I'm amazed at how many people don't take advantage of this service, with little cost associated with it. Other than the tests which are $8.50 per soil sample, more if you want more testing beyond nutrients, getting direction from the agent is free.

Now if we could just get the weather to cooperate a little more... The last 2 years, there have been very few 3-4 day windows you could count on, per NOAAH forecasts to make hay. This year, I didn't make first cutting until the second week of July, where as normally it's around Memorial Day weekend, and lucky to get a second cutting the first week of Sept.

I'm also going with a White Clover known as Renovator, to provide N for the hay grasses. The seed isn't cheap, but a lot cheaper than having to add N, over the expected 3-5 year life of that Clover. Luckily, Barry handles that too, so I'll be paying him a visit next week, and see about getting it ordered.