Summer-Dormant Tall Fescue (left) 1 year’s growth vs Wheat (right) in November. After the first year, Summer-Dormant Tall Fescue can offer earlier grazing than an Annual Cool-Season Forage.
Photo Credit NRCS – Texas Technical Note: TX-PM-12-01
CHISHOLM FESCUE is an endophyte-free tall fescue cultivar of Tunisian parentage with excellent persistence recently released by the NOBLE RESEARCH INSTITUTE. It was developed to provide livestock producers with a persistent, perennial cool-season grazing option and is adapted to the hot, dry summer environment typical west of Interstate 35 in Oklahoma and Texas where summer-active types fail to survive.
Chisholm is capable of producing high-quality pasture from autumn through spring suitable for grazing livestock before entering summer-dormancy; this fills the forage gap by reducing the need to feed hay and provides a perennial grazing option to complement or replace winter annual plantings. Chisholm tall fescue can be used in both tilled and no-till forage-based livestock production systems. Chisholm summer-dormant tall fescue seed is a PVP cultivar and commercially licensed to Warner Brothers Seed Company located in Lawton, Okla.