grass ID

[topside1]

What type grass?
Nutritional value?
What good is it?
My animals avoid it usually...guess come fall it tastes pretty good....Thanks for your time...Topside

[oneokie]

Appears to be Cheat Grass.

[Callieslamb]

I have that stuff too. They avoid it here also. Alas.

[Ronney]

Topside, it looks very much like Yorkshire Fog. Somewhere I had the nutritional value etc. of this grass but now I can't find it. I do recall that many years ago it was sown over here as a late winter/early spring fodder grass but is now considered by many to be a weed.

I have some here and there, mainly on ground that has been disturbed in the past, and notice the cows eat it up to the stage of growth that your middle photo shows. Past that, when the seed heads start to open and the grass becomes coarse and stalky, they ignore it.

Cheers,
Ronnie

[topside1]

Ronney thanks for the info...Six years ago I posted other photos of the same grass and Agman ID'ed it as "Yorkshire Fog". Trouble is I just couldn't remember the name and value. I'll do some reading on this type grass today. Agman I believe said it's a foreign grass and the seed arrives in bought grains and ends up on your farm...Thanks again Ronney....Topside

[topside1]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yorkshire_Fog

Mighty worthless grass I'd say...

[Tad]

We always just called it fuzzy grass, certainly not the technical name just something we thought up. The cows don't like it, the don't notice it in the baleage. Once the hay is cut or the pasture clipped it seems to disapear for the year.

[topside1]

Thanks Tad that is good to know. I figured dried and fed during the winter they would eat it...Not many other choices in winter. It's surely a pretty grass...Topside

[sassafras manor]

We have it also here in southern Illiniois. Around here it also is referred to as Cheat. It does green up early and provide an early season graze but at the point it is in now, only our goats will eat it. Once the seeds heads mature and the stems weaken, a good heavy rain will flatten it down for the season.

[francismilker]

I also call it "cheat" and it bales up quite nicely during my first hay cutting. After that, I don't see it anymore for the year and the cows clean it up from a bale of hay in the winter. It's amazing to me what they won't eat in Spring that they're glad to see come December! Kinda like Serieca Lespedeza!

[Ronney]

Thankyou for reminding me FM. I don't make hay on this farm because of the amount of Kykuyu we have so buy in. I am always happy to see Yorkshire Fog in the bales - it makes good hay and the cows seem to find in very palatable when served up as hay.

Cheers,
Ronnie