Pearl millet (Pennisetum typhoides) is an annual summer forage crop that exhibits high dry matter (DM) production in the mid-summer season (July-September), but its seasonal productivity is not accurately known in southern Kyushu. Therefore, we examined the seasonal productivity of pearl millet by sowing four times at five-week intervals in mid-May, late June, late July, and early September to clarify whether the crop is a suitable substitute for harvesting maize early in maturity and would stabilize annual total forage yields before the winter crop is sown. With increasing effective cumulative temperature (base temperature at 10°C), plant height and crop growth rate increased linearly to 220 cm and above 40 g m-2 day-1, respectively, and plant dry weight had a quadratic response to cumulative solar radiation across sowing dates. These relationships were similar in different growing seasons and at different sites. As a result, the dry weight of the crop at 8-11 weeks after sowing was around 1200 g DM m-2, as much as the maize yield. The most optimal date for sowing was late July, suggesting that the present pearl millet cultivar can be used as a substitute for early-harvested maize over the whole summer cropping season in this region.

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