Fescue fungus and cattle symptoms discovered in 1977. Soon wildlife biologist realized that fescue was hurting deer, quail and other wildlife

In 1977, microbiologist Charles W. Bacon in the ARS Toxicology and Mycotoxin Research Unit in Athens, Georgia, working with ARS chemist James K. Porter, ARS animal scientist Joe D. Robbins, and University of Georgia colleague E.S. Luttrell, made the first direct link between the fungus and cattle symptoms.
A farmer had asked them to find out why cows in one area were spending most of their time in a pond instead of in the field. Bacon and Porter took fescue samples from the field where the cows didn't seem to be eating and from another field where the cows were grazing. They found the fungus only in the field with the fasting cows.
The main problem farmers have with fescue toxicosis is in the summer. When the weather is hot, the alkaloids from the fungus cause "summer syndrome." When cows that are already hot eat infected fescue, they get even hotter because the alkaloids change their ability to regulate body temperature. The cows stop eating and seek shade or a pond to cool off.
Later, scientists found out that fescue's good qualities were also attributable to the fungus-fescue relationship, although they didn't understand how it worked.
The discovery by ARS agronomist David P. Belesky, at the Appalachian Farming Systems Research Center, in Beaver, West Virginia, of one way the positive side of the relationship works adds momentum to fescue toxicosis research. Belesky's work is described in the article The Grass Farmers Love To Hate (p. 4).