Fescue

[Marigold4]

My mare is 280 days and is fed meadow grass haylage to supplement her grazing (also a stock balancer pellet for vits and mins). Do I need to change her haylage at this stage as the meadow haylage may have some fescue in it? I've read online that it is important not to feed fescue in late stages. Not sure how much fescue is in my haylage as bag and website are not terribly specific.

 

[Burnttoast]

The danger is from endophytes in tall fescue specifically. It seems to be a big issue in the States but it's not a very common meadow grass in the UK so the likelihood is there won't be an issue (presuming you're in the UK?). If your turnout is mixed grass species there will almost certainly be fescue species in that as well, but again, probably not tall fescue.

 

[Marigold4]

The danger is from endophytes in tall fescue specifically. It seems to be a big issue in the States but it's not a very common meadow grass in the UK so the likelihood is there won't be an issue (presuming you're in the UK?). If your turnout is mixed grass species there will almost certainly be fescue species in that as well, but again, probably not tall fescue.

Phew, thanks. I joined a FB group about foaling and some posters are in US. Good to know it's not an issue here.