Crabgrass's exceptional palatability is due partly to its relatively high percentage of digestible dry matter (DDM) and crude protein (CP) content, equal to or greater than that of other grasses, and its high degree of lushness. Huneycutt reported a DDM of 74 percent for 'Red River' crabgrass, whereas 'Midland' bermudagrass contained only 63 percent. We have recorded DDM highs of 75 percent to over 80 percent during the very lush first third of the season. Protein content is often 15 to 25 percent during the early season and usually stays above 10 percent until late summer to fall; but remember, protein content is relative to nitrogen availability and stage of growth.

Crabgrass is used for all major classes of farm stock, including beef and dairy cattle, sheep, and horses. Within these uses it has been produced in many syndromes, particularly dry-land, but also in irrigated situations. It has been used for summer and winter grazing, hay, green chop (hay chop), silage, and soil conservation cover.

Crabgrass has been produced as a pure single warm-season forage (no winter crop grown); a mixture component in bermudagrass, millet, or sorghum pasture; and a mixture component with a summer forage legume such as cowpeas (Vigna sinensis), soybeans (Glycine max), mungbeans (Phaseolus aureus), or annual lespedezas (Lespedeza spp).

As a forage in a double-cropping approach (i.e., crabgrass - cool-season crop), crabgrass has been produced as a summer forage doubled with rye (Secale cereale), wheat (Triticum aestivum L.), ryegrass (Lolum multiflorum), vetch (Vicia villosa), arrowleaf clover (Trifolum vesiculosum), and other grasses and clovers (Trifolum spp).
New uses and approaches continue be discovered.

Forage yields range widely (Dalrymple, 1990) but usual yields with moderate inputs are 4,400 to 8,960 kilograms per hectare. Forage yields of 14,092 kilograms per hectare have been reported (Dalrymple, 1990) during a season of only eighty-nine growing days, illustrating the excellent production capabilities of the grass. We believe irrigated yields of about 22,000 kilograms per hectare are obtainable on good moist soils under good grazing practices and nitrogen inputs. That amount of forage could produce about 2,000 kilograms of beef per hectare if the correct stock were used.

Average daily gain (ADG) of young beef stock over a long span of poor to excellent conditions has been 0.68 kilograms per head2 (Dalrymple, 1990). However, ADG in good pastures averaged 0.83 kilograms per head, while upper-level ADG was up to 1.30 kilograms per head. There has never been a negative gain in seventeen years of stock performance with the forage. Practicing graziers often report an ADG of over 0.90 kilograms per head, with some as high as 1.2.

Beef yield from young stock has been over 725 kilograms per hectare with short-season irrigation. Usual recorded dry-land beef yield is about 325 kilograms per hectare. These yields are from low- to moderate-input management when moisture is deficient about 50 percent of the time. Graziers practicing irrigation believe they get yields of over 1,120 kilograms per hectare in moderate-level management.

Most crabgrass presently used by graziers is native, which is a naturalized type that has evolved in a particular field. The state of Oklahoma has six species of native crabgrass, within which are great variations of type and production.

In 1988 the world's first variety was released (Dalrymple, 1990); 'Red River' has proven itself an excellent forage type with a long green season, good recovery potential, excellent seed production for volunteer stands, and excellent quality.

2. 1 Kilogram per head ADG = 2.2 lbs. per head ADG.

Anonymous. 1988. History of crabgrass. Stockman Grass Farmer. September: 13.

Ball, D. M., C. S. Hoveland, and G. D. Lacefield. 1991. Southern forages. Potash and Phosphate Institute, Norcross, Ga.

Dalrymple, R. L. 1976. Yield and palatability of warm season grasses. Pub. No. OWB-76. Agricultural Division, The Samuel Roberts Noble Foundation, Ardmore, Okla.

Dalrymple, R. L. 1990. Development, naming, and release of the 'Red River' crabgrass variety. American Forage and Grassland Council Proceedings, June 6-9. pp. 189-193.