In many areas, the more aggressive fescue has replaced diverse native plant communities. When this happens, wildlife populations that depend upon a variety of plants can no longer thrive. Livestock producers use fescue extensively because it is a hardy cool-season forage that is tolerant of a wide variety of management conditions and soil types. Fescue has become a vital forage for the livestock producers in Missouri. Cattleman also have recognized several diseases in cattle that can be attributed to continuous grazing on fescue with seed heads that are infected with anendophyte fungus.
Fescue is well suited for planting along highways, roadsides and idle areas for erosion control.
As a result, however, most native wildflowers and grasses valuable to songbirds, mammals and insects in these areas have been replaced by fescue that is of little value to them. The dense, grassy sod that prevents soil erosion, however, inhibits the movement of some songbirds and quail that must be able to move freely through the vegetation to forage for seeds and insects. Fescue also covers any bare-ground areas that are important as dusting sites for rabbits, songbirds and quail. In fact, a Tennessee study concluded that endophyte-infected fescue had promise in reducing or eliminating burrowing mammals from orchards, tree farms and golf courses. Fescue also is allelopathic, which means it has the capacity to exude toxins into the soil that kill or restrict the growth of competing plants.