Recently I wrote about the very serious Yellow Foxtail problem
entitles "BEWARE Yellow Foxtails!". Click here to read
my article in the June 2010
Women & Horses Newsetter.
Shortly after that I received this letter from Jessica Jahiel,
an equine professional associate, and wanted to share her take
on Yellow Foxtail with all of you. Here is her letter:
"Foxtails are wicked, and far too many people seem to
take them for granted, as if they were nothing but a slightly
less tasty bit of grass. Not so!
Foxtail is such a problem everywhere, I know. Now that you
mention it, I believe that I do remember hearing about a couple
of cases of ulcerative gastritis in horses due to foxtail consumption.
I'm even fairly certain that I've seen some references to foxtail
damage (I would assume ulceration?) to the gastrointestinal
tract of a horse (or horses?) - If I remember correctly it was
a lower intestine issue - but I've been searching my files and
haven't come up with anything that's either specific or useful.
I do know from experience that there is no good way to get
rid of foxtail in pastures without going to extremes (which
I've done once and luckily haven't had to do again). Since it's
a grass, we just used Round-Up on the area with most of the
foxtails, wept bitter tears to see all that grass die along
with the foxtails, and then reseeded and gave the pasture time
off. The good grasses came up in a very cooperative manner and
now there are almost no foxtails to be found anywhere...
Mind you, I dig or pull out foxtails whenever I spy any, they're
a public enemy that rates right up there with the everpresent
mulberries. (If you ever find a way to eliminate mulberries
and starlings, please tell me what it is. I'll be eternally
grateful.)
This, plus keeping the pastures mowed to a height of 4" or
so, helps keep the nasty foxtails from producing mature seedheads
and and distributing seeds.
Unfortunately that doesn't really solve the issue of foxtails
in hay bales! I buy my hay from a local supplier who is quite
good, but his hay isn't free of all foxtails. Nobody's is, it
seems, all of the hayfields seem to have some foxtails, apart
from (possibly) the fields that are pure alfalfa (which I can't
feed my horses anyway). So I turn on the bright lights in the
barn every time I open a new bale, inspect it and pull out whatever
I find, and most of the time (when I have time) I shake out
the flakes for the horses and pull out any additional foxtails.
But I'm sure I don't get them all. Grrrrr!
