Trail building equestrians of New Mexico

[Una Smith <una.smith AT att.net>]

On Tue, Apr 07, 2009 at 02:25:31PM -0500, Trish Hug wrote:
>I bought a load of hay one time that contained foxtail brome. It stuck in 
>the horses' throats, and the Rottweiler that lived at the barn ate some too 
>and it had to be removed by a vet. Nasty stuff!

Foxtails are nasty indeed.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foxtail_(diaspore)

Foxtail brome is not a noxious species, but it is an exotic here and it has
low value as a forage.  Bromes in general are undesirable grasses, as far as
livestock is concerned.  Bromes are too short to bale (and in any case they
are annuals so harvesting in a usable state is not compatible with future
harvesting), they do not live long, do not yield high biomass, have very
high silica content except when very new, and the foxtails can cause injury.

Horses do like to graze on young tender brome, though, and it does no harm.
This is a grass that grows in the spring and again during monsoon season,
that is best not "saved" until later because by the time it looks lush its
silica content already is very high.

Thanks, Trish, this is a good example of an invasive species that horsemen
do need to look out for, until their horses have learned not to eat the
foxtails.

        Una