Crabgrass is an annual, warm-season grass with many species, the primary being large crabgrass and hairy crabgrass, two relatively large plant types of the North American continent. They produce copious upper-quality forage and abundant seed for volunteer stands, given the appropriate management inputs. Both species have many ecotypes.

Crabgrasses produce best on well-drained soils such as sands, sandy loam, loamy fine sand, loam, and silt loam that do not crack when very dry and are moist enough to keep the grass green; irrigation is necessary in dry climates. Production is poor on clay and silt soils. Crabgrass grows best at about 80 to 100 degrees Fahrenheit. Production can exceed 125 pounds per acre per day in moist fertile conditions and optimum temperatures. Crabgrass does not tolerate extremely saline or alkaline soils (pH 8 or higher). Crabgrass is produced in tilled and nontilled forage production approaches. Without a doubt, the best production and the longest green season, for both initial and volunteer planted stands, come from appropriate dormant-season tillage, which may be very minimal (soil renovation and seedbeds). For best yields, the tillage should be moderately deep, resulting in a relatively firm soil, and be completed before spring seed germination.

Crabgrass is a nitrophilous plant and responds to nitrogen fertilization very well like a good winter annual grass or lush forage from bermudagrass. Well-managed crabgrass produces about 25 pounds of grass per pound of nitrogen when the latter is applied with a balanced amount of phosphorus and potassium. Crabgrass prefers an acidic to slightly basic soil and sometimes responds negatively to lime application. Usual nitrogen rates for moderate-level dry-land production range from 50 to 100 pounds per acre or more.

An appropriate approach to a flexible form of rotational grazing is imperative for successful crabgrass pastures because the grass is among the most palatable of all summer forages and must be managed to control quality for stock performance goals, forage production, area performance goals, and seed production for planned volunteer stands. Crabgrass sometimes will fail under continual stocking because stock overgraze it and prevent good production. Crabgrass's exceptional palatability partly is due to its relatively high percentage of digestible dry matter (DDM), crude protein (CP) content equal to or greater than that of other grasses, and high degree of lushness.

Crabgrass is relatively easy to produce from planned volunteer stands: the manager simply must control grazing or conservation harvests to allow adequate seed drop the prior season or two and then either apply the proper shallow dormant-season tillage or tread the seed in with stock under nontillage approaches.

Crabgrass is used for all major classes of farm stock, including beef cattle, dairy cattle, sheep, and horses. As a forage in a single-season crop approach (no winter crop grown), crabgrass has been produced as a pure single warm-season forage; a mixture component in bermudagrass, millet, or sorghum pasture; and a mixture component with a summer forage legume, such as cowpeas, soybeans, mungbeans, or annual lespedezas.