Registration of ‘Arsenal’ Meadow Bromegrass

The USDA‐ARS announces the release of ‘Arsenal’ meadow bromegrass ( Bromus biebersteinii Roem. & Schult. [excluded]) (Reg. No. CV‐24, PI 674468) cultivar for use on semiarid rangelands and nonirrigated pastures as a rapid establishing forage grass with early spring growth, good fall nutritional quality, and exceptional winter hardiness. Arsenal is a 39 clone synthetic derived from the same base population as meadow bromegrass cultivar Cache. Arsenal meadow bromegrass was selected for plant vigor, seedling emergence from a deep planting depth, forage and seed yield, and seed mass under dryland environments ranging between 250 and 450 mm of annual precipitation. Molecular marker genotyping demonstrated that Arsenal is genetically different from Cache, ‘Fleet’, ‘Regar’, ‘Armada’, and ‘Admiral’. On dryland sites, Arsenal had significantly better seedling establishment and overall stand persistence combined from 2011–2013 than Cache and Regar. Arsenal has been evaluated in New York, Kentucky, Wyoming, and Utah for forage yield and is superior or equal to the cultivar Cache in its ability to produce dry matter yield comparable to or better than smooth bromegrass and meadow bromegrass cultivars under higher precipitation environments in New York and Kentucky. Based on June and September (stockpiled) forage, Arsenal had greater crude protein (17 vs. 7%), in vitro true digestibility (12 vs. 2%), and less neutral detergent fiber (6 vs. 1%) than Cache. Arsenal expands the use of meadow bromegrass from irrigated pastures to nonirrigated pastures and rangelands with ≥330 mm annual precipitation, providing livestock producers with high‐yielding nutritious forage that is winter hardy and drought tolerant.