Bermudagrass Varieties for Hay: Tifton 85, Coastal, Jiggs and the Rest

By the XES Netting team — bale net-wrap manufacturer · Updated August 25, 2026 · ~16 min read

Ask ten hay producers which bermudagrass variety to plant and you will get ten answers, most of them delivered with total confidence and most of them contradicting each other. Tifton 85 is the highest-yielding thing you can put in a field. Tifton 85 winterkills. Jiggs is the easy one. Jiggs is the one that thins out. Coastal is obsolete. Coastal is the only thing that still sells.

They are all right. They are just answering different questions, and almost nobody says which question they are answering.

There is a single plant trait underneath nearly all of it — and once you know it, the arguments stop being contradictory and start being a map.

Contents

• The one trait that explains the arguments
• The varieties, one at a time
• Side-by-side comparison
• "My hybrid reverted to common" — what really happened
• How far north can you take each one?
• What Tifton 85 does to your equipment and your bale count
• Horse hay vs cow hay: why the answer flips
• A five-question variety checklist
• Frequently asked questions

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The one trait that explains the arguments

Bermudagrass runs in two directions at once. It sends stolons across the soil surface and rhizomes underneath it. Both are stems, both root at the nodes, and both make new plants. The difference is where they sit when the weather turns.

A stolon is exposed. It is the reason bermudagrass can cover open ground quickly, and it is the reason a field can be knocked back by a hard freeze. A rhizome is buried, insulated by soil, and holds the carbohydrate reserve that pushes the stand back out in spring. North Carolina State Extension describes the plants as producing both, with internodes running from short in common bermudagrass to relatively long in Tifton 85.

Every named hybrid is a particular ratio of the two. And that ratio, more than anything else on a variety tag, predicts how a stand will behave:

• Stolon-heavy varieties establish fast, can often be planted from cut tops instead of dug sprigs, produce more tonnage, and give up cold tolerance to do it.
• Rhizome-heavy varieties establish slower, make a denser sod, come out of winter reliably further north, and yield less per acre in the process.

Hold that in mind and read this next post, from a Texas producer describing Tifton 85 on a hay forum. Two separate observations, one mechanism:

Tifton 85 is a vigorously growing bermudagrass that when properly fertilized and adequately watered, should be cut every 21 to 28 days. If cutting is delayed, the stolons (above ground stems) become quite thickened and are difficult to get to dry without putting them through a crimper.

— vhaby, HayTalk, "Tifton 85"

That is the stolon trait showing up as a harvest problem. The same grower, in the same thread, describes where it will and will not live:

This hybrid bermudagrass is limited in its growth to the more temporate climate of the southern states. It has been grown in parts of Oklahoma and Arkansas but its said to shiver there.

— vhaby, HayTalk, "Tifton 85"

Thick stolons that will not dry, and a grass that shivers north of the Gulf states. Same trait, two symptoms. That is the pattern for the whole species.

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The varieties, one at a time

Coastal (1943) — the reference point

Coastal came out of Tifton, Georgia in 1943, a cross of a 'Tift' selection with a South African introduction. It became the industry standard and it is still the most widely planted hybrid in Texas. NC State notes its stems, stolons and rhizomes are all larger than common bermudagrass, with longer internodes, and that when well fertilized it has nearly three times as many roots below the 4-foot level as common bermudagrass — which is where its drought tolerance comes from.

Coastal is not the highest-yielding option any more and has not been for decades. What it still has is a deep root system, resistance to root-knot nematode, and a buyer base that recognizes the name on a phone call. Our Coastal bermudagrass hay guide covers its fertility and cutting-interval management in detail; this article is about choosing between it and the alternatives.

Tifton 44 (1978) — the cold one

Tifton 44 is the outcome of a deliberate search. USDA-ARS screened several thousand F1 hybrids for winter hardiness at the Georgia Mountain Experiment Station in Blairsville, and Tifton 44 was the best of them. It is Coastal crossed with a bermudagrass collected in Berlin, Germany in 1966 — a parent that, in ARS's words, will survive in Michigan.

Against Coastal it is darker green, finer stemmed, shorter, denser, and it carries more rhizomes. ARS measured it at 5 to 6% more digestible than Coastal, with steers gaining 1.8 lb per day against 1.5 lb on Coastal — 19% better. It also starts growing 7 to 14 days earlier in spring.

The costs are real. NC State notes Tifton 44 does not spread as rapidly as Coastal on heavy clay soils, and recovers from drought much more slowly. That is the rhizome trade running the other way: a plant investing below ground is not covering ground above it.

Tifton 85 (1992) — the yield one

Tifton 85 is the best F1 hybrid from a cross of PI 290884, a South African introduction, with Tifton 68. Against Coastal, USDA-ARS reports it produces 26% more dry matter and is 11% more digestible. Steers grazing it gained 1.47 lb per day for 1,032 lb of liveweight gain per acre. In a dairy trial, three-and-a-half-week-old Tifton 85 hay at 15 to 30% of a total mixed ration was comparable to alfalfa for Holsteins.

Those are the best forage numbers in the genus, and producers who grow it are consistent about the tonnage:

the tift 85 is a high yielding variety that has high cp for a Bermuda grass, it is also very stemmy and could stand to be conditioned upon cutting, ours consistently outyeilds our other varieties. We have stands that have been in production for 10 years. It really loves n and heat, the hotter the better, best suited for coastal plains.

— somedevildawg, HayTalk, "Tifton 85"

"Best suited for coastal plains" is the whole caveat in five words. NC State is blunter: Tifton 85 has lower cold tolerance than both Coastal and Tifton 44, its biggest drawback is low freeze tolerance, and in North Carolina it is recommended for the southeastern part of the state only.

One genuine bonus that rarely makes the sales pitch: NC State reports Tifton 85 is consistently less affected by bermudagrass stem maggot than Coastal, Midland 99, Ozark and Tifton 44. In a bad stem-maggot year that difference is worth a cutting.

Midland 99 (1999) — the compromise

Midland 99 is another Coastal cross with a winter-hardy parent, released to fix the disease problems of the original Midland. NC State describes it as tolerant of heavy grazing, low soil pH and winter stress, with productivity similar to or greater than Tifton 44, crude protein comparable to Coastal and Tifton 44, and slightly better winter hardiness than Tifton 44. In North Carolina sprayfield trials it produced more early-season growth than Coastal, Ozark, Tifton 44 and Tifton 85, evening out by mid-season.

If you are north of comfortable Tifton 85 country and want more than Coastal gives you, this is usually the variety that comes up.

Jiggs — the one that is not from Tifton

Jiggs is different in kind from everything above. It is not a USDA breeding-program release; it is a naturalized Gulf Coast type that was selected and distributed privately. That matters for two reasons: there is less published trial data behind it, and the folklore has had room to grow.

What is consistently reported is that it establishes easily, tolerates tight and poorly drained soils better than the Tifton hybrids, and is normally planted from tops rather than dug sprigs:

I agree with Colby, but just a quick point on sprigging. T-85 pretty much has to be sprigged, where most stands of Jiggs, that I've seen, have been established with tops. Jiggs is much easier to establish.

— Mike120, HayTalk, "Jiggs Bermuda vs Alicia Bermuda"

Planting from tops is a stolon-dominance tell. A cut top is a piece of stolon; if a variety will root reliably from one, it is investing heavily in above-ground stem. That predicts fast cover and thin winter reserves, which is exactly the profile Jiggs has.

Where the folklore goes wrong is nutritive value. Texas A&M AgriLife's forage program reports no difference in nutritive value between Jiggs and Coastal. If someone tells you Jiggs tests higher, they are describing a management difference — a shorter cutting interval, more nitrogen, a better year — not a genetic one.

Alicia — the pretty one

Alicia is the variety that best illustrates why "which is best" is an unanswerable question. Here is a producer with decades on it, giving both halves of the honest answer in one post:

I have no experience with Jiggs but a lot with Alicia. I like Alicia because of its finer stem and darker green color. It is susceptible to rust and will lose lower leaves when it lays down, but when cut regularly it is easier to dry and makes prettier looking hay than most other varieties. Now as far as nutritional content and digestibility it is lacking, but I do not have anyone buying that is interested in anything other than looks and smell.

— LaneFarms, HayTalk, "Jiggs Bermuda vs Alicia Bermuda"

Lower digestibility, higher price. That is not irrational — it is a different product sold to a different buyer, and we come back to it below.

Alicia also has a structural weakness worth knowing before you plant it. It lodges:

Alicia is more fine stemmed than jiggs and blows down easy when it big. And that creates more of a dead bottom to me. Jiggs is Probly my favorite of the Bermuda grasses we have. The only thing I don't like about Jiggs is that it has problem with rust.

— jdhayboy, HayTalk, "Jiggs Bermuda vs Alicia Bermuda"

And here is the contrast with Tifton 85, from a third grower — the same stem thickness that bogs a mower is what keeps the canopy standing and the leaves attached:

That thick stem will holds the grass up and retains the leaves. Not like Alicia which lays on the ground and ends up with 4 feet of stem and one foot of leaves. T-85 may be 3 ft tall and leaves all the way to the ground.

— hay wilson in TX, HayTalk, "Tifton 85"

Leaf retention is where hay quality actually lives. A variety that lodges is throwing away its best feed before the mower ever gets there — the same loss mechanism covered in our guide to hay leaf shatter and leaf loss.

Ozark (2002) and Newell (2023) — the ones you have probably not planted

Ozark is very cold tolerant, best adapted to sandy loam, and NC State recommends it for the northern half of the bermudagrass belt with productivity similar to Tifton 44. It is a reasonable Tifton 44 alternative on lighter ground.

Newell is newer than most of the forum threads on this subject. Released in 2023 by the University of Florida, it is reported to establish faster than Tifton 85, produce about 15% more dry matter, and carry similar stem-maggot tolerance. Planted area is still limited and NC State says more work is needed to judge it outside Florida — so treat it as one to watch and to ask your sprig supplier about, not as a settled recommendation.

Seeded types — Cheyenne, Wrangler, Mohawk and the blends

Seeded bermudagrass is the cheap entry point and the reason "hybrid vs common" gets muddled. Cheyenne (1989) is winter hardy, quick to establish, and roughly Coastal-equivalent in nutritive value, but has been a poor seed producer; Cheyenne II and the CD90160 selections now carry that genetics into blends like Gaucho and Ranchero Frio. Wrangler (1999) is cold hardy with good establishment-year cover, but NC State reports persistence problems in Georgia and North Carolina trials.

The honest framing: seeded types get you a stand for a fraction of the sprigging cost and a fraction of the wait. They do not match a well-managed hybrid on tonnage, and the cheapest bags on the market are frequently common bermudagrass with a brand name.

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Side-by-side comparison

Compiled from USDA-ARS variety releases, NC State Extension "Bermudagrass Production in North Carolina," and Texas A&M AgriLife forage publications. Yield and quality figures are trial results, not guarantees.

Variety	Spread type	Cold tolerance	Relative yield	Planting stock	Best fit
Tifton 85	Stolon-dominant, large but fewer rhizomes	Lowest	Highest — +26% DM vs Coastal	Sprigs or mature tops	Gulf Coast cattle hay, maximum tons
Jiggs	Stolon-dominant	Low	High	Tops (easiest)	Tight or wet ground, fast establishment
Alicia	Stolon-dominant, fine stem	Low	Moderate	Tops	Appearance-driven horse hay
Coastal	Balanced, deep roots	Moderate	Baseline	Sprigs	Drought-prone ground, established markets
Midland 99	Rhizome-strong	High	At or above Tifton 44	Sprigs	Upper South, heavy grazing, low pH
Tifton 44	Rhizome-dominant, dense sod	Highest of the Tiftons	Near Coastal, +5–6% digestibility	Sprigs or 8-week-old tops	Northern edge of the belt
Ozark	Rhizome-strong, upright	Very high	Similar to Tifton 44	Sprigs	Sandy loam, northern belt
Seeded types	Varies by blend	Varies	Below hybrids	Seed, 6–15 lb/acre	Low establishment budget

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"My hybrid reverted to common" — what really happened

This is the single most common bermudagrass complaint on the forums, and it is worth settling because the diagnosis changes what you should do about it. Here is the classic version, from a producer whose Midland 99 stand had gone from 80 small squares per acre down to 45:

I walked the field today and the outside looks amazing knee high hybrid Bermuda just as pretty and thick as it could be but when you walk out towards the middle it is Poor and thin with what looks like common Bermuda there are places that are not ankle high my pastures look better.

— Ranger518, HayTalk, "I think my hybrid Bermuda is reverting back to common or somthing?"

Soil pH 6.9, 450 lb of 22-11-22 after every cutting, good rainfall, sprigged five years earlier on ground that had been in row crop. By every input measure the field should have been fine.

Genetic reversion is not possible here, and the reason is the same reason you had to buy sprigs in the first place. Hybrid bermudagrasses are sterile. As one grower put it plainly:

Like all hybrid bermudagrasses, the seeds produced are sterile and the grass must be planted from sprigs which are composed of stolons (above ground vegetation) attached to rhizomes (below ground runners)

— vhaby, HayTalk, "Tifton 85"

A sterile plant propagated only from cuttings has no mechanism to segregate back to a wild type. Every plant in a hybrid stand is a clone of the original. What people are actually seeing is replacement, not reversion: something thinned the hybrid, and common bermudagrass — which does set viable seed, prolifically — moved into the gap. The stand did not change. Its composition did.

That reframes the question usefully. Instead of "why did my grass change," ask "what thinned it?" The answers cluster into four:

1. Winter injury. The most common cause, and it hits stolon-dominant varieties first. Frost-killed top growth left standing moderates soil-surface temperature by up to 10°F, which is why grazing or cutting a stand into the dirt in late fall is expensive.
2. Potassium depletion. Hay removal strips potassium faster than any other nutrient, and potassium is what funds winter hardiness. A stand fertilized with nitrogen only will yield well for a few years and then thin from the roots up. Our fertilizing hay fields guide covers the removal arithmetic.
3. Compaction. A fair suspicion on ground with a long row-crop history, and the first thing another grower raised in that thread — a hybrid sprigged into an old cropping field inherits whatever pan the previous system built.
4. Bermudagrass stem maggot. The first thing an experienced grower suggested in that thread, and easy to mistake for something else — the top two leaves die back and the field looks frosted in July. Tifton 85 is the most tolerant of the common hybrids; Coastal, Midland 99, Ozark and Tifton 44 are all hit harder.

My first thought was Bermuda Stem Maggots. Their damage would have gone away after cutting. Your pictures do not show the wilting so I do not believe that is the problem. The only thing I can think of is to test the soil on the slower growing places and see if it is different than the better places. Might consider getting your local extension agent out to have a look. I am not familiar with Midland and do not know if it is known for reverting to Common. I hope you get it worked out. That is some nice looking grass.

— Tim/South, HayTalk, "I think my hybrid Bermuda is reverting back to common or somthing?"

That last reply contains the right diagnostic instinct: test the soil where it is bad and where it is good, and compare. A whole-field soil test averages the problem away, which is exactly how a stand can show 6.9 pH and a heavy fertilizer program on paper while starving in the middle.

So read the pattern before you read the plant. If the thin ground follows gates, water and travel lanes, suspect compaction and traffic. If it follows low or wet spots, suspect winter injury. If — as in the case above — the headlands are lush and the interior is thin, look hard at how fertilizer is actually landing, because spinner overlap on turn rows routinely doubles the rate at the edges of a field. If the whole field is uniformly thin, look at potassium and at whether the original sprigging ever took. Either way, thickening the stand is a fertility and management problem before it is a replant problem — see thickening a thin hay field.

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How far north can you take each one?

This is where the stolon-rhizome axis pays off, because published cold-tolerance data is thinner than you would expect and the folklore is thick.

Two anchor points are well documented. Oklahoma State University freeze work reports Tifton 85 tolerating roughly 22°F at the crown, while Coastal survived 19°F in the same context — so Tifton 85 is the less cold-hardy of the two, not the more. And USDA-ARS reports that Tifton 44, when well established with many underground rhizomes, has overwintered at Stillwater, Oklahoma; Fayetteville, Arkansas; Simpson, Illinois; Raleigh, North Carolina; and Princeton and Quicksand, Kentucky.

Read that qualifier again — "when well established with many underground rhizomes." Winter hardiness is not only a variety property. It is a variety property multiplied by how much rhizome mass the plant managed to build before the cold arrived. Which is why ARS's own winter-survival rules for Tifton 44 are all rhizome-feeding rules:

• Plant as early as possible, before June 1, so the stand has a full season to build reserves.
• Increase the quantity of sprigs planted rather than stretching them.
• Keep potassium adequate.
• Apply no nitrogen after mid-August, and no more than 250 lb per acre per year.
• Take the last hay cutting no later than September 15.
• Leave some stubble so the plants stay dormant and insulated.

Late nitrogen pushes tender top growth that has to be paid for out of reserves. A late cutting takes the solar panel away right when the plant is trying to fill its rhizomes. Neither has anything to do with the leaves — both are about what is stored underground on the first hard freeze.

Practically: a first-year Tifton 85 planting is the most vulnerable thing on your farm, because young plants sit at the surface and have not built crowns yet. If you are planting a stolon-dominant variety at the northern edge of its range, the first winter is the one that decides.

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What Tifton 85 does to your equipment and your bale count

Variety selection is usually discussed as an agronomy decision. It is also a machinery decision, and Tifton 85 is the clearest case. Read these three posts together:

So much grass it was bogging the mower down if u went over 5 mph.

— jdhayboy, HayTalk, "Tifton 85"

My brother told me the other day that he had his Massey WR9770 cutting at 3mph in tifton. And that's 220hp....

— Colby, HayTalk, "Tifton 85"

I cut mine at 26 days and broke a shearbolt on my baler when I didn't slow down enough on a big windrow.

— Mike120, HayTalk, "Tifton 85"

A 220 hp windrower at 3 mph, a mower bogging above 5 mph, and a broken shear bolt at a 26-day cutting interval. None of that is a machine defect. It is 26% more dry matter arriving at the same header width, and it has four consequences worth budgeting for before you sprig:

• Ground speed drops. Plan cutting capacity on tons per hour, not acres per hour.
• You need a conditioner. Thick stolons will not dry in a reasonable window without one — the crimper point in the first quote is not optional. Our disc mower vs mower conditioner comparison covers the choice.
• Cutting interval becomes a hard rule. USDA-ARS recommends cutting Tifton 85 in mid-May and then every four to five weeks; growers who let it go past that describe stems that will not cure.
• Your bale count goes up with your tonnage. More dry matter per acre is more bales per acre, and the wrap, twine and storage that go with them.

That last point is worth putting a number on, because it is the part people forget when they compare sprig quotes. Here is a real harvest from that thread:

Official bale count 212 , 63-64x5 ft rounds. Weight not really sure but it was on 50 acres. So Probly a between 2-2.5 tons an acre average.

— jdhayboy, HayTalk, "Tifton 85"

Two hundred and twelve rounds off 50 acres in one cutting, in a multi-cut southern system that may run four to six cuttings a year. A 26% tonnage advantage over Coastal, carried across all of those cuttings, is roughly a quarter more bale net wrap per acre per season — and about a quarter more handling, hauling and storage space. That is not an argument against Tifton 85. It is an argument for ordering wrap against your expected tonnage rather than last year's, and for checking that your wraps per bale setting still suits a denser, stemmier crop. Our hay yield per acre guide covers turning bale counts into real tonnage.

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Horse hay vs cow hay: why the answer flips

Here is the second axis, and it explains most of the remaining disagreement. Two producers in the same thread, seven words apart on the recommendation and completely opposite on the variety:

I'd say if I was planting (sprigging) a new field today, for hay production for cattle, tift 85, for horsey peeps Alicia, jigs, tift 44

— somedevildawg, HayTalk, "Jiggs Bermuda vs Alicia Bermuda"

I have coastal fields planted in the 60's and are still going strong. They last forever if you take care of them. Tifton 85 is the best route to go unless you're in the horse only market. Then just regular coastal is your best route

— Colby, HayTalk, "Bermuda Grass, Coastal, Tifton 85 & 44 - Stand Life?????"

Both are giving the same advice: plant for feed value if you sell to cattle, plant for appearance and familiarity if you sell to horse owners. Cattle producers buy on a hay test, so digestibility and protein convert directly into price. Horse buyers overwhelmingly buy on fine stem, green color, soft feel and smell — and on a variety name they recognize.

Tifton 85 loses on every one of those horse-market criteria. It is coarse, stemmy, and unfamiliar to buyers accustomed to Coastal. That is not a quality failure. It is a product-market mismatch, and it is the reason a grower can truthfully say Tifton 85 is the best variety available and a neighbor can truthfully say it is unsellable. Our guides to pricing hay and dealing with hay customers go further into the two markets.

One practical note if you sell into the horse market: the traits that make hay pretty — fine stem, thin leaves — also make it fragile in handling, and lodging varieties like Alicia arrive at the baler with their lowest leaves already gone. Cut on a tighter interval and handle it gently.

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A five-question variety checklist

Work through these in order. The first question that gives you a hard constraint is the one that decides.

1. What is your record low, and how young will the stand be when it gets there? If you are north of roughly the I-20 corridor, or you get single-digit air temperatures with no snow cover, start from the rhizome side: Tifton 44, Midland 99 or Ozark. A first-winter stolon-dominant stand is the highest-risk combination there is.
2. Who buys your hay? Cattle and dairy reward feed value — go Tifton 85 or Jiggs. Horse buyers reward appearance and a familiar name — Coastal, Alicia or Tifton 44.
3. What is your ground like? Tight, heavy or imperfectly drained soils favor Jiggs. Deep sands favor Coastal or Ozark. Heavy clay is where Tifton 44 spreads slowest.
4. Can you buy and plant sprigs, or do you need to plant tops? Jiggs and Alicia establish readily from tops. Tifton 85 will establish from mature top growth but is more reliable from sprigs. If sprig availability or planting equipment is the binding constraint, say so out loud before you fall in love with a variety.
5. Can you feed it? Tifton 85 responds to nitrogen and heat and will not deliver its yield advantage on a thin fertility program — and any hybrid will thin without adequate potassium. If the fertilizer budget is fixed and modest, a well-managed Coastal stand will beat a starved Tifton 85 stand every year.

One thing that is not on the list: stand life. Every variety here will outlive the decision if it is fertilized and not overgrazed. Coastal fields sprigged in the 1960s are still cutting, and one grower in the threads above has Tifton 85 stands in production after ten years. You are choosing what to live with for decades, which is a good argument for getting questions one and two right rather than chasing a yield number.

A brief safety note, since it comes up whenever Tifton 85 is discussed: a 2012 incident in Elgin, Texas prompted concern about prussic acid in Tifton 85. It was investigated as an isolated event and hybrid bermudagrass is not considered a routine prussic-acid risk. Nitrate accumulation in drought-stressed, heavily fertilized grass hay is the more realistic concern across all varieties — see prussic acid and nitrates in baled forage.

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Frequently asked questions

What is the highest-yielding bermudagrass variety for hay?

Tifton 85. USDA-ARS reports it produces 26% more dry matter and is 11% more digestible than Coastal, with steers gaining 1.47 lb per day and 1,032 lb of liveweight gain per acre. The trade-off is the lowest freeze tolerance of the common hybrids, so it is best suited to the Gulf Coast and lower South.

Is Tifton 85 more cold tolerant than Coastal?

No — it is less. Oklahoma State University freeze research puts Tifton 85's crown tolerance near 22°F against 19°F for Coastal, and North Carolina State Extension names low freeze tolerance as Tifton 85's biggest single drawback. It is recommended only for the southeastern corner of North Carolina.

Can hybrid bermudagrass revert to common bermudagrass?

No. Hybrid bermudagrasses are sterile and propagated only from sprigs or tops, so every plant in the stand is a clone with no way to segregate back to a wild type. What looks like reversion is the hybrid thinning — usually from winter injury, potassium depletion, compaction or stem maggot — and seeded common bermudagrass filling the gaps.

Is Jiggs bermudagrass higher quality than Coastal?

Not genetically. Texas A&M AgriLife reports no difference in nutritive value between Jiggs and Coastal. Jiggs does establish more easily from tops and handles tight, poorly drained soils better, so it often looks better in the field — but a quality difference on a hay test comes from cutting interval and fertility, not the variety.

Which bermudagrass variety is best for horse hay?

Coastal, Alicia or Tifton 44. Horse buyers pay for fine stem, green color, soft texture and a familiar variety name rather than for laboratory feed value. Tifton 85 tests better than all three and still sells poorly into that market because it is coarse and stemmy.

How far north will bermudagrass survive?

It depends on variety and on rhizome mass. USDA-ARS reports well-established Tifton 44 overwintering at Stillwater, Oklahoma; Fayetteville, Arkansas; Simpson, Illinois; Raleigh, North Carolina; and two Kentucky sites. Stolon-dominant types such as Tifton 85 and Jiggs are far more limited. Ozark and Midland 99 are also bred for the northern belt.

Do you plant bermudagrass from sprigs or from tops?

Both work, but not equally by variety. Jiggs and Alicia establish readily from cut tops. Tifton 85 can be established from mature top growth and is more reliable from sprigs. Tifton 44 will take from sprigs or from tops that are at least eight weeks old. Sprigging rates run 40 to 60 bushels per acre.

How do I keep a bermudagrass stand from winterkilling?

Build rhizome reserves and leave them alone. USDA-ARS advises no nitrogen after mid-August, no more than 250 lb of nitrogen per acre per year, adequate potassium, a last hay cutting no later than September 15, and leaving some stubble standing. Frost-killed cover moderates soil-surface temperature by up to 10°F.

Does a higher-yielding bermudagrass variety cost more to bale?

Yes, proportionally. A 26% dry-matter advantage means roughly 26% more bales per acre, which means more net wrap, more twine, more handling passes and more storage. It also means slower ground speed at cutting. Budget wrap and storage against expected tonnage rather than acreage when you switch varieties.

The bottom line

Bermudagrass variety selection looks like a yield question and is really a pair of trade-offs. Stolons buy you tonnage and speed and charge you in winter hardiness; rhizomes buy you survival and charge you in tons. Cattle buyers pay for the first, horse buyers pay for the second. Almost every disagreement you will read about Tifton 85, Coastal, Jiggs, Alicia and Tifton 44 is two people standing at different points on those two axes and assuming the other one is wrong.

Pick your point deliberately. Answer the cold question first, because it is the only one that can end a stand outright. Answer the market question second, because it decides whether you get paid for feed value. Then plant the best variety inside those two constraints, feed it properly, and expect to be cutting the same field in twenty years.

Related guides

• Coastal bermudagrass hay guide — fertility, cutting interval and stand management once the variety is in the ground
• Bahiagrass hay guide — the other southern perennial, and why it grazes better than it bales
• Fertilizing hay fields — the potassium removal problem that thins hybrid stands
• Thickening a thin hay field — what to do before you decide to replant
• Hay yield per acre — turning a bale count into a real tonnage figure
• Disc mower vs mower conditioner — why thick-stemmed varieties need conditioning
• How to read a hay test — what those digestibility numbers mean in a sale
• How many wraps per bale — setting wrap count for a denser, stemmier crop

Hero image: bermudagrass (Cynodon dactylon) sward showing the low, spreading habit and characteristic finger-like seedheads shared by every variety in this guide. Photo via Wikimedia Commons, used under its stated license.