Harvesting It should be cut for hay when in full bloom. Normally 4 cuttings per year are possible. When properly made and stocked, hay keeps well for many years. Yields and Economic Silage made from heavily fertilized 'Coastal', properly ensilaged before 35 days old, can produce as much milk as corn silage at a cheaper cost. Dehydrated, this cultivar may be substituted for alfalfa as a source of vitamin A and xanthophyll for poultry feeds.
Most commercial seed is produced in Arizona and southern California.
In the US, it is extensively used from Maryland to Florida and west to irrigated areas of the Southwest. This grass is also attacked by the bacterium Xanthomonas cynodontis, by the parasitic flowering plants Cuscuta pentagona, Nuytsia floribunda, Strigna harmonithica, and S. lutea, and by the viruses barley yellow dwarf and lucerne dwarf. References Degener, O. 1957-1963. Flora Hawaiiensis or The new illustrated flora of the Hawaiian Islands. Duke, J.A. 1978.