Explore every episode of the podcast Work of the Earth
| Title | Pub. Date | Duration | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ep. 3: Tall Fescue - Part 3 - Avoid It, Improve It, Replace It | 25 sept. 2026 | 00:42:32 | |
Tall fescue transformed agriculture across much of the eastern United States—but the endophyte that helps the plant survive can also harm the animals grazing it. In this third and final episode of our tall fescue series, we turn to the practical question: What can farmers do about toxic tall fescue? At Purdue University’s Southern Indiana Purdue Agricultural Center, Jason Tower demonstrates how grazing management, stockpiling, legumes and pasture diversity can reduce the challenge while preserving the strengths of the grass. At the University of Kentucky, forage specialist Ray Smith explains ergovaline testing, risks to cattle and broodmares, and when an old Kentucky 31 pasture should be replaced with endophyte-free or novel-endophyte tall fescue. The choices fall into three broad approaches—avoid it, improve it or replace it—and each begins with understanding the animals, the pasture and the farm. University of Kentucky Forage Extension: Tall Fescue UK Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory: Ergovaline Sample Collection Guidelines UK Horse Pasture Evaluation Program Fescue Toxicosis in Cattle — University of Kentucky Sampling for the Tall Fescue Endophyte in Pasture or Hay Stands — University of Kentucky Tall Fescue Novel-Endophyte Varieties and Establishment — University of Kentucky Pasture renovation Alliance for Grassland Renewal Tall Fescue Replacement and the Spray–Smother–Spray Protocol Other testing laboratories Agrinostics University of Missouri VMDL: Ergot/Fescue Alkaloids in Feedstuff Oregon State University Endophyte Service Laboratory From the episode Southern Indiana Purdue Agricultural Center | |||
| Ep. 2: Tall Fescue - Part 2 - Breaking the Curse | 15 sept. 2026 | 00:41:05 | |
Tall fescue had become one of the most important forage grasses in the eastern United States—but its remarkable persistence came with a hidden cost. Once researchers connected livestock problems to a fungus living inside the plant, they began searching for ways to preserve the grass without sacrificing animal performance. In Episode 2 of the tall fescue series, Dr. Joe Bouton helps me trace that search. From improving toxic fescue pastures with red clover, to removing the endophyte, and ultimately replacing it with a nontoxic strain, this is a story of persistence, failure, and extraordinary natural variation—and of the researchers who found a way to separate the wondergrass from its curse. Resources and acknowledgments: • Archival oral-history recordings courtesy of the Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History, University of Kentucky Libraries. | |||
| Ep. 1: Tall Fescue - Part 1 - The Discovery of the Wondergrass | 15 sept. 2026 | 00:42:03 | |
Tall fescue transformed agriculture across the eastern United States. It covered eroded hillsides, filled gullies, and provided farmers with a tough, dependable forage that seemed able to survive almost anything. In Episode 1 of our tall fescue series, we meet up with Dr. Garry Lacefield to trace the discovery of Kentucky 31 in the hills of Menifee County, Kentucky, and follow its rise from an overlooked patch of grass to the celebrated “Wondergrass.” It is a story of soil erosion, agricultural change, and a plant whose extraordinary persistence would reshape farms throughout the region. But the same qualities that made tall fescue remarkable would eventually reveal a darker side—one that farmers and researchers were only beginning to understand. Resources and acknowledgments: • The Wonder Grass: The Story of Tall Fescue in the United States, by Don Ball, Jimmy Henning, Garry Lacefield, and Carl Hoveland: Auburn University • Archival oral-history recordings courtesy of the Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History, University of Kentucky Libraries. | |||