It is a rugged, well-adapted grass and will stand abuse from grazing and trampling. The bermudagrasses and bahiagrass can be overseeded with ryegrass, cereal grains, and annual clovers to extend grazing and increase quality. The main summer annual grass crops for horses are the pearl or cattail millets. Apparently all sorghums, including sudans, can cause a cystitis syndrome in horses when they are allowed to graze pastures or consume it as green chop. Do not use sorghums for grazing or green chop.
Annual lespedeza is a summer annual legume often used for late-summer growth.
Many horse owners depend on pearl millet for high-quality summer grazing. Pearl millet also produces more tillers, stands more traffic, and produces more fall growth than the sorghum-sudangrass hybrids. This is especially true when planted on sandy, droughty soils. Using pearl millets eliminates the problem of prussic acid poisoning that occurs with sorghums. The basic cool-season perennial grass, especially for north Mississippi, is tall fescue.