Agree with Ebenezer's recommendations. I'm down in the coastal plains, and have been scared away from the sorghum family from the sugar cane aphid...but really liked sorghum sudan in the mix before that pest became a major nuisance. My summer mix now is Tif leaf 3 pearl millet (10-15lbs) Sunn Hemp (5-8 lbs) cow pea (5-8lbs) and crabgrass (0.5-2lbs) The first two are the heavy lifters, and will dominate the sward with the first graze...but if you don't overgraze with your first pass, and allow enough rest, the cowpea and crabgrass will be there for your second (and if you plant early enough and manage correctly) third grazing. Guess some of this depends on rainfall, too. You can manage the crabgrass to reseed if you so desire, and that would be the only reason i'd consider planting more than 1 lb. It's expensive, and you have to be careful not to plant it too deep. I'm not sure I know what you mean by rye and pearl millet not getting along. The rye should be played out by the time the soil temp is warm enough to plant the summer annuals, and shouldn't have an alleopathic effect. I've tried some other species down here, but nothing has worked as good as these 4. I might try a few more this year, after hearing Dr. Christine Jones (and Ray would agree, I suspect) report that 7 or more species is required to garner the full effect of multi species planting symbiosis. Perhaps the sunflower (like in Ray's summer mix). The t-raptor, while a great species for winter, didn't work for me in summer. Too durn hot down here.
