jedstivers":3sbsxrfb said:
Not wanting to hijack this thread but I've had some questions about this also. Is KY 31 toxic free and what about native, how do you manage it or do you kill and replant something that is not toxic? Thanks Jed
KY31 is the enophyte infected variety, the endophyte is toxic. The toxic endophyte is ergo-valine or some such name. Interseeding legumes addresses the problem with the toxicity but some cattle just don;t do well on it. Any animals raised in a non-ky31 environemnt will take at least 2 years to adjust to it, some never do. The only way to get rid of the toxic ky31 is to completely erradicate it. There are a number of "novel" endophyte varietys that are non-toxic but they don;t have the persistence that the ky31 does. Another problem is that although they ky31 won;t infect the non-ky31 the ky31 seeds are hardy. They will still sprout and grow after years of laying dormant. Because it's more agressive and presistant eventually you will still end up over the years with more and more ky31 in the field. Cows grazing ky31 should be held off of a non-ky31 pasture for a couple of days so that any sees they ingested are passed before they reseed the new stuff.
IT's easier to just manage the clover and put up with the ky31, cheaper too.
If you select for animals that really thrive on ky31 eventually the problems seems to go away pretty much.