Fescue?

I believe your right on both answers. If memory serves me well it was a cool season non-native that was introduced in the late 30's or early 40's as a low maintenance feed and hay crop and also for erosion control. It originated from Europe. All I do know is that it has almost absolutely zero benefit for upland type game, especially when it goes rank.
 
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I don't know if your kidding or not? Dictionary ought to define it as the bane of existence. It's an old world sod forming cold season grass. Most common lawn grass. Hyper competetive, carries a symbiotic endophyte that causes health issues in livestock but provides a resistence that helps the dang fescue through times of stress. Easily out competes the natives, and with it;s long growing season was championed by the USDA in the 60's as a miracle plant, allowing almost year round grazing with little or no maintenence or effort. Another example of importing something with limited benefit and a great deal of negative impact. Like Kudzu, House Sparrows,Starlings, purple loose strife, and most recently zebra mussells. Back to fescue, it causes a thick mat of monoculture grass which is unusable to nesting or brooding quail and most ground nesting birds. Can't move through it easily, not conducive to insect number or variety, crowds out any useful grasses even with agressive management to the contray. Increase in fescue will parallel the decline of quail, in an almost perfect graph. If you don't know what it is, bless you, it probably hasn't made it's way to you yet, or maybe if your real lucky it can't adapt to your area.
 
Thanks for informing me. It is not something that is around these parts. Hopefully the you won't have to deal with fireants, that is what many believe have caused our decline in ground nesting critters.
 
I have limited exposure to the fire ants. In a perfect world maybe the fescue and fireants would kill each other. You did manage to send us the state animal, I've seen more armadillo's in the last three years than in the rest of my life combined! I got my niece a stuffed toy armadillo, and she turned it upside down cause that's the only way she's seen one.
 
I've never seen fescue as an invasive last very long. I suppose in certain areas it could possibly "take over," but I've never seen it.

Fescue is typically planted in pasture mixes. It makes good hay. I grew up in an area where fescue seed crops were grown, so the plants would grow up to 3 or 4 feet high before harvest.

I don't know that it's useless or profitable one way or the other for pheasants/quail. You could have a whole field of fescue, and as long as there was a bushy fence row on the borders, there will be birds.
 
Idaho is obviously very different from Missouri. You plant fescue here and it'll take over in a heart beat and has absolutely NO value to game birds.
 
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