Texas A&M AgriLife Research recently released Blackhawk, a new arrowleaf clover promising high forage production with improved disease resistance.

Dr. Gerald Smith, Texas A&M AgriLife Research forage breeder, said he developed Blackhawk from lines with natural resistance to the fungal soil pathogen Pythium ultimum and for tolerance to bean yellow mosaic virus.

Developed at the Texas A&M AgriLife Research and Extension Center at Overton, Blackhawk traces its lineage back to dark-seeded lines from 1984 field selections of arrowleaf cultivars Yuchi, Amclo and Meechee, Smith said.

Soil pathogens such as Pythium ultimum kill or damage germinating seed and emerging arrowleaf clover seedlings, Smith said. Both Apache and Yuchi arrowleaf clover are susceptible to this seedling disease, and in laboratory trials, inoculation with the disease resulted in 100 and 73 percent dead or severely diseased seedlings, respectively.

Clover can be an important part of forage production – and by association, beef production – in the southern U.S., Smith said. Arrowleaf clover has long shown good production potential. If planted or overseeded into warm-season pastures in the fall, it promises grazing for cattle in early spring when warm-season grasses are dormant.