For local farmers, sweet vernal grass a challenge

Community Report

Sweet vernal grass has its seed heads up, making itself conspicuous, and at the Extension Office we’ve received a couple of inquiries about managing it. As with many weeds, it is most recognizable when it has started to flower, but by then there are few management options.

Sweet vernal grass, Anthoxanthum odoratum, gets both its common and its species name from the pleasant smell it produces when crushed or cut. It is native to Eurasia, and was likely introduced to sweeten the smell of hay, making it more marketable. Unfortunately, sweet vernal grass does very little else for hay quality. It is not palatable to livestock and, under certain conditions, it can produce the toxin dicoumarol. Dicoumarol itself is a byproduct of the very same compounds that produce sweet vernal grass’ pleasant scent. Ensuring hay is properly dried before baling is one way to reduce the formation of dicoumarol.