high sugar grass

[knabe]

red, if this qualifies as an ad pull it, but this is one of the few times i have seen aberdart grasses available in the US.  I am going to order a couple of bags and see what gives.  Any thoughts on high sugar grasses and stand establishment.  granted, this will skew epd's across environments, but hey/hay?.  any comments on a high sugar diet, non-corn based and non-distiller based and carcass quality?  Just saw an article about someone cautioning using distillers products for breeding stock horses.  high sugar grass can cause horses to founder.

http://www.sucraseed.com/products.html#


http://www.safergrass.org/      is a good website about pastures for horses and problems with high sugar ryegrasses in horses.

 

[red]

Knabe- for our resident triva provider, anything. Very interesting reading actually! Thanks!

Red

 

[knabe]

another reason for high sugar grass

http://environment.guardian.co.uk/climatechange/story/0,,2122455,00.html

Mike Abberton, a scientist at the institute, said farmers could help tackle climate change by growing grass varieties bred to have high sugar levels, white clover and birdsfoot trefoil, a leafy legume, for their animals to eat.

I have planted both of these.  i planted the sugar grass as plugs to see how it would do before i spread it before the first rains.  the cows know where it is, and after a first few munching, the plugs have grown in diameter from about 3/8 inch to about 1.5 inches.  it spreads fast, grows faster than anything in the pasture with no fertilizer.  i ordered it without orchard grass as i have plenty of that and the clumps from that tend to become hard to walk on.  the rye grass bunches seem to spread laterally while the orchard seems to grow into a ball that sticks out of the ground about 3- 5 inches.  the birdsfoot trefoil needs to get started, otherwise it's pointless.  i think the trefoil doesn't cause them to bloat like the clover.  the clovers i planted tend to cover bare soil like where a gopher mound was real well.  when they see burclover, essentially a weed, they compete very well.  the subclover seeds underground, causes bloat, so provid a bloat block.  burclover doesn't provide much feed, seeds excessively, causes burs in horses stomachs, don't know about cows.  to plant the rye grass, i don't disturb the soil, but put cured manure on top along with hay fines that accumulate around the barn as we have high clay soil, heavy rains in the fall (not like texas now), so i don't want it to wash away, and then sprinkle in a couple of times before the rains so they get a head start.

caution, if you thought ryegrass was bad for horses and founder, the high sugar ryegrass should be even worse.