# Cheat grass and foxtail?



## kccjer (Jan 27, 2012)

Ok. I have been calling cheat grass and foxtail and wild oats different things! And they are all same thing! 

So....what is it that I have been calling foxtail? It looks kinda like timothy. We always pulled the heads and made "caterpillars" out of them as kids. You can squeeze your hands and they "crawl" out of your hand. LOL What's that stuff????


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## nubians2 (Feb 20, 2011)

Hmmm I dont know. All I know is that it has cost me alot of vet bills.


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## xymenah (Jul 1, 2011)

This is a fox tail.










This is cheat grass.










And this is wild oat.










Foxtail, wild oats, and cheat grass are not the same but people sometimes interchange them.


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## Jessica84 (Oct 27, 2011)

and wild oats looks like oats, just kinda a sad version of oats, If we had more rain around here I could show you a pic lol


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## Willow (Jun 12, 2011)

:shrug: are they harmful to goats?


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## Jessica84 (Oct 27, 2011)

yes to all animals. I have not had a problem with the oats, but the other 2 get in animals eyes, mouth, and in between dogs toes. They have barbs and will travel threw a animal. Last year one lady had a foxtail get into her dog and it ended up in its heart and killed it.


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## Steve (Mar 12, 2011)

Tall foxtail is only good for making the caterpillars you mentioned,the wild oats are good for hay or pasture.There is a yellow foxtail also,im not sure if its harmful or not,but my goats like it when it first comes up,check it out here http://www.ppws.vt.edu/scott/weed_id/setlu.htm


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## kccjer (Jan 27, 2012)

Steve, that's it! Tall foxtail. Ok, so I have been calling it the right thing. And, I have been calling wild oats the right thing too. Altho I may be interchanging some cheat grass and wild oats too. Ok, thanks everyone.


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## Jessica84 (Oct 27, 2011)

Im going to try the caterpillar thing and show the kids!


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## Steve (Mar 12, 2011)

Just keep squeezing it gently,it will seem to crawl out of your hand,then take it to a safe place and light it on fire!!!


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## kccjer (Jan 27, 2012)

Steve said:


> then take it to a safe place and light it on fire!!!


LMAO I feed it to my chickens. They LOVE the stuff. In the spring when we get babies, I like to pull "salad" for them and this works great. They eat it and I don't have to deal with it. Works for those grassy sandbur things too.


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