Besides spray recommendations, pasture plantings contribute to the volume of calls that extension agents and specialists get in the spring. What should I plant? Where can I find the seed? How should I get seed in the ground?
Planting decisions are a serious commitment of any cattleman or farmer. Most of the perennial forage base in the southern U.S. is replanted once in a generation, if ever. When making such a major change, there needs to be a major justification. Farmers are looking to replace stands lost to fall drought, improve their pasture productivity or move away from forages that they perceive to be input intensive. As bermudagrass stem maggot and armyworm pressure increase on bermudagrass acreage, bahiagrass is getting a second look.
In Arkansas, there is growing interest in bahiagrass (Paspalum notatum). Bahiagrass is widespread in the southern third of the state – and much of the southeastern U.S. south of I-40 – and most stands have been in place for decades. Most Arkansan stands are assumed to be Pensacola, which has been a standard variety since the 1930s. Over the past 75 years, breeding work has been focused on improving the production, nutritive value and geographic range of bahiagrass. As a result, there are varieties that germinate more quickly, grow earlier and later in the growing season, and can live farther north than old Pensacola. There are planted stands of AU Sand Mountain in West Tennessee, and we have seen a number of bahiagrass populations on the northern border of Arkansas across a sweep of elevations.
Variety trials conducted in other states suggest that some of the newer varieties have improved production or extended growing seasons compared to Pensacola. While not all of these varieties are commercially available in Arkansas, the ones that are (e.g., TifQuik and UF-Riata) might be better varieties for newer plantings.
Should farmers start converting fields to newer varieties?
A challenge with reading other states’ variety trials is that not all entries are always easy to price out or source locally. The best variety of any forage is not helpful if we can’t afford to plant it or can’t find enough seed to grow it. At the same time, variety trials are often managed to recommendations rather than common practices. University trials are well-designed to provide a fair playing field, but that field may not reflect local conditions.
Replacing old sods is expensive. In addition to the $300- to $500-per-acre cost of the bahiagrass planting, the preparation and establishment periods create the opportunity cost in terms of lost forage production. Already, much of this bahiagrass acreage is extensively managed rather than intensively managed. Harvests are infrequent, and what little fertilizer is applied is done in one-time bouts rather than metered out over the season.
Farmers perceive that bahiagrass has limited production potential, but what if current stands were managed better?
We are working to answer these questions through the "Better Bahia" trials underway at the Southwest Research and Extension Center in Hope, Arkansas. In addition to answering the above questions, we wanted to develop in-state trial data. The last formal Arkansas forage variety trials wrapped up over 25 years ago.
What does bahiagrass establishment look like in the state?
A test site was prepared for the trial through a spray-smother-spray cycle of annual crops in 2024 and then planted in April 2025. We compared a panel of the commercially available bahiagrass varieties (Pensacola, TifQuik and UF-Riata) and a common bermudagrass that could be sourced through local distributors. We then subjected these plots to either common producer practices (CPP) or best management practices (BMP). The CPP plots got 150 pounds per acre of 17-17-17, whereas the BMP plots got nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium as recommended by a soil test. We monitored the weed and pest pressure on the plots but only prepared to spray for armyworm, opting to let the bermudagrass stem maggot take in the bermudagrass check plots. Plots were harvested in mid-August and again in mid-October.
As the plots grew, weed competition was mainly broadleaf signalgrass (Urochloa platyphylla), crabgrass (Digitaria sanguinalis) and barnyardgrass (Echinochloa crus-galli). These warm-season annual weeds were thinned out during the August harvest, and the plots became cleaner stands of bermudagrass or bahiagrass. The benefit of fertilizing the plots to BMP was seen in the crude protein (CP) and total digestible nutrients (TDN). Bahiagrass stands had slightly more forage than the common bermudagrass in the October harvest. Because our pest management focused on armyworms, bermudagrass was limited by bermudagrass stem maggot in the second harvest but still had comparable yields to bahiagrass.
The nutritive value of bahiagrass will vary with management standards and variety. Under common producer practices, the TDN and CP remain limited. By reaching for the best management practices, an increase in nutritive value can be achieved. TDN and CP improved when switching from common practices to better management. The TDN levels for CPP and BMP plots both improved from the first harvest to the second. Within the second harvest, TDN levels show no difference. The CP levels from the first to the second harvest jumped sharply. The bahiagrass met nutritional requirements into late pregnancy for a cow. The bahiagrass under BMP meets the minimum requirements of a dry cow in the third trimester. Meeting the needs of lactating cattle will likely require supplementation.
In the first year of this trial, we have reaffirmed some forage fundamentals and collected some new information. As one might expect, following soil test recommendations is the best way to improve forage quality in the establishment year. Additionally, when planting a perennial field, one should expect weed pressure, even after a year of burndown sprays and annual smother crops.
The speed of establishment was less important than the sound agronomy of planting and managing stands. Though TifQuik is known to show up more quickly than the other varieties, it did not establish into thicker or more productive stands than the other plots. We have, interestingly, seen that bahiagrass may have the advantage in production later in the season when bermudagrass stem maggot pressure limits bermudagrass growth. Most comparisons between bermudagrass and bahiagrass predate the arrival of the stem maggot, so this trial should offer a fair comparison now that the pest is widespread in the Southeast.
Our harvest data are encouraging to farmers who might be concerned about lost forage production when establishing new stands. There seems to be 1 to 1.5 tons per acre of annual forage production possible in the first year. Where most Arkansas pastures and hayfields produce 2 to 4 tons per acre, this first-year production can help the stand to pay back establishment. Like any other perennial, persistence will be the main test for these bahiagrass varieties. As we start getting questions about pasture plantings, we hope this trial will help lead to some better bahiagrass fields.
Kyla Neal contributed to this article. Neal is from Deer Creek, Illinois, and is a graduate student at the University of Arkansas with a research focus on ruminant nutrition and forages.
