A study of animal production under different grazing regimes in the False Upper Karoo at Grootfontein

Abstract

Three systems of animal production on the fragile Karoo veld, i.e. multi-paddock rotational grazing, pauci-paddock rotational grazing and continuous grazing were studied. Of these systems, multi-paddock rotational grazing gave the best results with continuous stocking resulting in the worst. All three systems studied had long histories of both continuous stocking- and of pauci-paddock rotational grazing. The veld, under both these previous systems of management has stabilised, but at different seral stages. The continuously stocked range stabilised in the early developmental seral stage, consisting mainly of annual grasses. The veld under pauci-paddock rotational management stabilised in the early to mid-developmental seral stage, consisting mainly of perennial grasses. Experimentation on veld in a stable condition is a prerequisite if valid conclusions in respect of rotational grazing and continuous stocking are to be drawn. Rotational grazing on overgrazed veld will result in poor animal performance, while it is generally accepted that continuous stocking on pristine veld will result in excellent animal performance for a number of years. Multi-paddock rotational grazing outperformed both pauci-paddock rotational grazing as well as continuous stocking on both types of veld. This is surprising taking into account the mid-seral stage condition of the vegetation. This supports the argument that with improved veld management, an improved production potential is possible on veld even in a degraded or current condition.


Keywords: plains; pediments; grazing capacity


African Journal of Range & Forage Science 2001, 18(2&3): 137-141