Crabgrass (Digitaria ciliaris and other species) has been a naturalized introduced grass (forage) in the United States apparently since the original immigrations of the Europeans. Throughout my lifetime, producers in Oklahoma and other areas have used what nature presented but without much planned management. Observations of those uses led to more detailed, controlled management and selection studies, some of which resulted in the selection of RR874 as the overall best forage. It then was named and released as 'Red River' crabgrass and it is the first selected variety in the world; we hope the stage has been set for future developments.

Crabgrass has been a naturalized plant in the United States for generations. An article about the history of crabgrass mentions that the United States Patent Office introduced it into the United States in 1849 as a livestock forage (Anon., 1988). It also has been used as a grain crop for soup/porridge and a rice grain substitute (Phillips, n.d.).

We surmise that it was a combination of higher yielding grains that were more easily harvested and processed, plus the nature of crabgrass to behave as a weedy plant and infest other early days cultivated crops, that led to its falling into disfavor by most early day farmers. However, it is that characteristic plus the grass's characteristic of tenaciousness to the land, in part, that makes it a real forage choice.

Some of my earliest memories are of my farmer-stockman parents' planned crabgrass farm pasture. Over the years, I encountered innumerable producers who were using naturalized crabgrass, purposely or accidentally, as part of their grazing and haying enterprises. Those observations and the lack of specific management information led to the forage studies.

To be honest, we had no intention of developing a crabgrass cultivar when our work with crabgrass selections began. We simply wanted to ascertain what ecotypes were within crabgrass pastures and demonstrate their wide variety. However, variety development did occur in a stepwise fashion. As previously mentioned, the grass was being produced from naturalized stands by innumerable graziers. That basic knowledge and professional opportunity led to the following general progression in developing 'Red River' crabgrass:

1. original farm/ranch observations and experience provided early knowledge of the grass;
2. the knowledge led to more controlled pasture demonstrations and evaluations on Noble Foundation demonstration/research farms;
3. part of what was observed and evaluated in that work was that the unplanted naturalized stands appeared to contain a great variation in ecotypes that seemed consistent even when variations in emergence, soil type, and region were considered;
4. seed from different areas was collected from plants that appeared to be morphologically different and was used to plant the first observation rows and replicated plots to test whether real variation occurred; early tests readily showed enormous variation in the crabgrass plants, the results increased our interest, and it became obvious that varietal selection was a real possibility, since no varieties were available;
5. grazier interest and awareness in using crabgrass as a planned and managed forage continued to grow, and graziers' receptiveness to using the forage increased, as did our knowledge of the management responses of the grass (Dalrymple, 1975, 1983); we recognized that there was no known variety but there was sufficient producers' interest to develop one;
6. collection of seed and testing of selections were continued; three superior selections were made for possible final varietal development;
7. the final selection officially was named 'Red River' crabgrass and released in 1988.

Seeds were collected from crabgrass at various locations in Oklahoma, Missouri, and New Mexico. A total of twenty-seven seed lots was collected for comparison purposes, half from single plants and half from composite seed lots from a group of morphologically similar plants. Two of the latter came from two Noble Foundation demonstration pastures and were used as control selections. The number of seed lots collected and tested is admittedly low. It is likely considerable improvement remains possible from more aggressive collections and study.

The original seeds from the collections were planted in observation rows, replicated plots, or both on Noble Foundation farms in southern Oklahoma. Additional testing and evaluation were done in Arkansas, Kansas, and Oklahoma after undesirable types were eliminated during the first three years of testing. An equivalent of eleven years of research went into final selection of the variety.

All plantings were evaluated for forage yield by usual plot techniques. Most plantings were evaluated for chemical content of the clipped forage. All early years' testing also included observations on early stand development, green forage season length (spring to fall growth), leafiness (leaf to stem ratio), leaf width, stem size, seed production, growth habit (prostrate to erect), stoloniferous spreading, forage and seed color, and disease/insect occurrence.