No problem. Time is short (I've only been getting a few minutes here and there to think about this stuff or orchestrate a reply). Reply if and when you feel like.
That was a pleasant appointment. He was a young fellow....money investment occupation type.....has a home garden and is big into composting, vermiculture, involving the kids, and growing his families food. That is great!.....a younger generation focused on health and fitness...its about time! Much more in common than either of us imagined on the first handshake. Always take the time to tell strangers your story and listen to theirs!
Anyway, what you should have gleaned from the above is fescue is a non-mycorhizal host plant which supports a non-native fungi with capacity to shift the native soil microbial population and suppress soil microbial activity. That soil microbial shift is what leads ultimately to loss of plant diversity and animal productivity in the fescue dominant field! Minerals available to the animal are only those present in the fescue plant...for whatever reason fescue accentuates Cu deficiency in low Cu soils.
This should be common sense to us if we transfer information across scientific lines. By training, my field is ruminant nutrition. During course of study, one is taught how various diet changes shift the rumen microbial population....as examples, cottonseed cake supplemented on low quality dormant grass increases grass intake and stimulates fiber digesting bacterial, supplementing with grain shift the rumen microbe population from fiber digesters to starch digesters, low quality straw in the diet promotes more rumen fungi activity, ionophores shift from gram negative to gram positive bacteria, Tylan is an antibiotic which keeps lactic acid producing bacteria from killing the feeder calf on a high grain finishing diet, etc. The point is that small changes in the diet shift the rumen microbial population....the cascading effects can either have net positive or net negative effects!
Think of the soil microbial population as that of the cow or deer rumen. When you think in that context, then you will understand that anything which we do to plants above ground causes a series of compounding and cascading effects in the soil microbial population below ground. So when you put infected tall fescue roots in the soil.....the endophyte causes major changes in the soil microbiome...a shift selecting against mycorhizae and lowering of total soil microbial activity.
So my thoughts on fescue (which are open to change as new information arrives) are as follows:
-For the wildlife only property, a wise long term move is to eradicate most of the fescue with the least foot print on the land as possible....even if that means once in fescue now in ugly tall weeds!
-For the dual wildlife/livestock property, monitor fescue plant density closely avoiding monoculture....monitor cattle comfort and respiration closely/regularly When the mercurynormally rises above 80 find something else to graze besides fescue! When the mercury rises above 90 stay the hell away from fescue! Graze fescue hard Dec through March when endophyte alkaloids levels are the least! Just because the cow herd came from the fescue belt doesn't mean they will be adapted to fescue in the marginal fescue belt....didn't have to lose many tail switches to prove that to myself!
You ask about glyphosate?....a non-selective herbicide which kills most all plants it contacts. Think again about the cow and her rumen and what we could do to her to emulate a glyphosate effect....that is easy don't feed her.....the rumen bugs run out of resources and the host cow undergoes catabolic degeneration leading to death!
Does the same not happen with glyphosate? you bet it does! One week there is a field of plants who's roots are feeding a soil microbial population....the second week the feed source is pulled....the 3rd week the catabolic degeneration of soil microbes begins because there are no living host plants and soil orgain matter is being burned for it's reserves! The term 'nuke a field with gly' is very fitting! By the 2nd week seeds of a very diverse blend in kind and type need to be in place so that a new diverse soil microbial population can begin colonizing the new roots!
I am not being anti-glyphosate. Just want one to think through the whole process going on in the soil when using broad spectrum herbicide....do we have plans to improve soil microbial diversity after spraying?....or will our plans for monoculture seeding reduce and simplify soil microbial population after spraying?
Similar applies to broadleaf herbicides where forbs and legumes leave the picture after spraying. How much ever % of a pie chart the broadleaf plant related soil microbes occupied before spraying went to zero after spraying....ie a whole class of organisms are lost and the soil microbial population is imbalanced....and the 'weeds' return next year!
Grass selective herbicide...same thing!
It's all about checks, balances and trades! We all operate on a different playing field and will have different metrics to gauge and viewpoints thereof. Diversity in thought is a good think but let's not lose wisdom in the process!
Nuking fescue in the fescue belt with gly and short term loss of soil microbial activity vs long term gain of increased plant diversity, soil microbial diversity, and soil microbial mass....fair trade IMO.
Nuking fescue in the 'marginal fescue zone' with gly where fescue ebbs and flows with drought severity...not a wise check IMO.
Burning and thinning low grade timber in the southern plains which induces a short term soil microbial activity depression and slight erosion risk vs long term gain of increased plant diversity....a fair trade IMO.
Burning and thinning timber in the eastern hardwood forest....consult your local forester....I have no valid opinion!
Just graze and observe,
Doug
