News

New product to combat fescue toxicosis in cattle

A new formula for fighting fescue toxicosis is available for cattle that graze in the so-called “Fescue Belt” of the U.S.

Kentucky 31 Fescue is the culprit and when ingested can cause cattle to lose weight and have reproductive issues from the endophyte-infected grass. Ken Bryan, product manager for Cargill Animal Nutrition’s beef business, tells Brownfield Ag News their product is a proprietary mineral defense for fescue toxicosis.

It was studied on stocker cattle at the University of Missouri’s Southwest Center last summer, “We actually saw an improvement of 30% better average daily gain on the cattle that were on FescueEMT versus the same mineral without the EMT package.”

And, he says, the product helped with reproductive performance, “Hey, these cattle looked better. The hair coat looked better. And more importantly, especially when you think about bottom line and selling calves and putting money in the bank – reproduction performance was excellent.”

Ninety-percent of tall fescue is infected with the endophyte that causes toxicosis — which costs the U.S. beef industry an estimated 600-Million-dollars every year. The University of Missouri Extension recommends producers replace Kentucky 31 with novel-endophyte Fescue to prevent the illness.