PurBee
Well-Known Member
Hi all,
Prevention is worth an ounce of cure and all that, so i hope you all don’t mind me posting this thread, i know we all have enough work on our hands with our horses and don’t want to cause un-necessary concern but feel this year a warning on this forum could help keep our beloved horses healthy and help all provide safe healthy winter grazing.
It has come to attention via another thread and other sources online, so i feel an alert to all horse owners in the Uk is warranted, that this year, due to the summer climate being wetter than usual, has caused a lot of grazing fields that have long grass seed heads, to become infected with Ergot fungus.
This type of fungus is toxic to horses and if they consume a ‘large’ amount can result in very acute illness, that can result in convulsions that can kill, and there’s not many routes of treatment so it’s a wise precaution this year to check over your fields with long grasses.
For those that normally grow ‘foggage’ check your fields for this fungus on the grass seed heads before turning out in the winter for grazing.
For anyone on livery yards with long grass stalks in the grazing fields, have a check around.
Horses can have an accidental nibble of some and not drop down dead on us, with cattle being even more sensitive to this poisonous fungus, so dont be alarmed if you find a handful of some, and nothing else anywhere - it’s more a case of being alert of fields which are very long and stalky, that haven’t been cut or grazed much this year, that you plan to use for winter grazing. If you find grass seed heads with the fungus within every metre of inspecting a field, you know it’s a problem field and can cause acute poisoning.
In fields that have been grazed all year round and have short grass, you wont have this issue, its the grass seed head that gets infected, not blades of grass.
Check long grass seed heads that tends to grow around fence lines, that horses may be able to reach, when winter grass gets short and they start to get interested in eating by the fence lines.
Strim or cut the affected fields/fencelines - allow to fully rot down, and new grass growth to come through, before allowing grazing of badly affected areas.
This fungus has been discussed in this thread a lot so i dont need to repeat a lot of info in this post - there are pictures in that thread too:
https://forums.horseandhound.co.uk/threads/will-it-never-end.809449/page-4#post-14715385
The fungus looks like little black bendy bananas or mouse poop, growing out of the grass seed head. Sometimes you’ll find seed heads that just look blackish mould earlier in the autumn, before ergot then starts to sprouts out:
Prevention is worth an ounce of cure and all that, so i hope you all don’t mind me posting this thread, i know we all have enough work on our hands with our horses and don’t want to cause un-necessary concern but feel this year a warning on this forum could help keep our beloved horses healthy and help all provide safe healthy winter grazing.
It has come to attention via another thread and other sources online, so i feel an alert to all horse owners in the Uk is warranted, that this year, due to the summer climate being wetter than usual, has caused a lot of grazing fields that have long grass seed heads, to become infected with Ergot fungus.
This type of fungus is toxic to horses and if they consume a ‘large’ amount can result in very acute illness, that can result in convulsions that can kill, and there’s not many routes of treatment so it’s a wise precaution this year to check over your fields with long grasses.
For those that normally grow ‘foggage’ check your fields for this fungus on the grass seed heads before turning out in the winter for grazing.
For anyone on livery yards with long grass stalks in the grazing fields, have a check around.
Horses can have an accidental nibble of some and not drop down dead on us, with cattle being even more sensitive to this poisonous fungus, so dont be alarmed if you find a handful of some, and nothing else anywhere - it’s more a case of being alert of fields which are very long and stalky, that haven’t been cut or grazed much this year, that you plan to use for winter grazing. If you find grass seed heads with the fungus within every metre of inspecting a field, you know it’s a problem field and can cause acute poisoning.
In fields that have been grazed all year round and have short grass, you wont have this issue, its the grass seed head that gets infected, not blades of grass.
Check long grass seed heads that tends to grow around fence lines, that horses may be able to reach, when winter grass gets short and they start to get interested in eating by the fence lines.
Strim or cut the affected fields/fencelines - allow to fully rot down, and new grass growth to come through, before allowing grazing of badly affected areas.
This fungus has been discussed in this thread a lot so i dont need to repeat a lot of info in this post - there are pictures in that thread too:
https://forums.horseandhound.co.uk/threads/will-it-never-end.809449/page-4#post-14715385
The fungus looks like little black bendy bananas or mouse poop, growing out of the grass seed head. Sometimes you’ll find seed heads that just look blackish mould earlier in the autumn, before ergot then starts to sprouts out:
