We started recording stocker steer and heifer performance as average daily gain (ADG) on Noble Foundation crabgrass pastures in 1974 and have continued to do so as opportunities have arisen. All of the crabgrass grazings and stock performance records before 1995 were based on continual or basic rotational syndromes on either double-cropped crabgrass, i.e., winter pasture and crabgrass double cropping, or single-cropped crabgrass. At that time there were no unique grazing techniques or other special management practices, and there was no summer supplemental feeding during drought.

A demonstration and evaluation trial was initiated in 1995 to record stocker steer performance on 'Red River' crabgrass by using some forage and stock management techniques that we had not used on crabgrass before, the objective being to determine if we could produce better long-term ADG than usual. Results are presented later in this report.

It seems appropriate to mention that 'Red River' crabgrass, an improved and properly released variety, is a variable-use forage. The same is true of good natural crabgrasses.

Almost all perpetual crabgrass stands are from some form of volunteer management.

The most common implementation of crabgrass pasture or hay meadows is in a syndrome of volunteer (or planted) crabgrass-winter annual forages such as wheat, cereal rye, oats, barley, triticale, annual ryegrass, or annual bromegrasses. Crabgrass planted after these crops may be used for grazing, hay, chop, or silage. Crabgrass can be used as it's grown or stockpiled to get through a dry summer or the fall. We can supplement crabgrass pastures by incorporating winter or summer legumes like lespedeza, cowpeas, soybeans, and alfalfa.

In this particular demonstration and evaluation, 'Maton' cereal rye and planned volunteer 'Red River' crabgrass were double cropped. We have used that approach on this field, with some variation, for twenty-four consecutive years without failure of either forage crop.

Stock performance records on crabgrass pastures come from both 'Red River' crabgrass and native, or naturalized, stands. We do not believe there is an ADG difference between good pastures of either kind. However, 'Red River' crabgrass has better forage yield, early and late forage production, and other desirable forage traits.

In the 1974-86 Noble Foundation trials, all steers and heifers averaged an ADG of 1.51 pounds on crabgrass forage without being given supplemental feed, although some of the herds had growth implants. The ADG was not glorious, but it is more meaningful when we look at the ranges of ADG on different crabgrass pastures. An ADG of 0.63 to 1.63 pounds was made on relatively poor to fair pasture that was somewhat thin, dry, or dead. Overall daily gain in these cases was 1.11 pounds. Performance numbers have never been negative even on the worst of the crabgrass pastures.

Stockers on good but overall medium-quality crabgrass achieved an ADG of 1.80 to 1.92 pounds per day, for an overall average of 1.86 pounds of ADG. During 1980, the hottest, driest summer on record in southern Oklahoma, steers had 1.92 pounds of ADG, with about 50 percent of the fodder coming from stockpiled heat- and drought-killed crabgrass. Stockers grazing on lush, high-volume crabgrass naturally produce the top gains: 1.98 to 2.87 pounds of ADG, for an overall average of 2.36. Remember, there were no special forage or stock management techniques in these grazings.

We have been fortunate to hear of numerous stocker ADGs on crabgrass; an ADG of 1.75 to over 2.25 pounds is not unusual, and we have had reports of 2.58 pounds.

Perhaps among the most meaningful is the record of one grazier who advised that his stocker steers averaged about 1.00 pound of ADG on bermudagrass compared to 1.75 pounds on crabgrass. A Tennessee grazier recently (1998) reported over 2.5 pounds of ADG from 'Red River' crabgrass compared with 0.3 pound from summer fescue. These gains come from grass, salt and mineral, and water, not supplemental feed, growth implants, or ionophores. Crabgrass is quality summer feed and this record of 75 percent better ADG from crabgrass than from bermudagrass over many years and with thousands of stockers is profound.