livestock Rotational Grazing
grazing management for more
than 15 years and have livestock,
including cattle, sheep and/or
goats where 75% of their diet
comprised natural vegetation. A
few farms stocked a diversity of
game in very low numbers (on
average 2% of total farm LSUs).
Fourteen of the farms were
selected as representing grazing
management most strongly
aligned to HPG or with very
high grazing densities (highly
rotational). The rationale behind
this was that these farms were
likely to have more extremeHow was tHe study
conducted?
Forty-eight working livestock
farms were surveyed nationally
to identify farmers practising
a range of livestock farming
approaches, from continuous
and low density, to holistic
planned grazing (HPG) and
ultra-high-density grazing.
The farms covered more than
1 300km² across five biomes and
a rainfall gradient of between
150mm/year and 850mm/ year.
Having identified 23 farms with
high-density grazing and fence
lines with neighbours having
similar fire regimes, we tested
the perception that intensive
grazing sustains higher animal
numbers, while increasing
grass cover and reducing
bare ground and woody plant
cover, using remotely sensed
(satellite) vegetation indices and
on-the-ground inspections.
The available fence lines were
clustered around the transition
between the Grassland and Nama
Karoo biomes. An important
selection criterion was that farms
were managed under a particularDr Heidi-Jayne Hawkins, head of research at Conservation South Africa and an associate at the
Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Cape Town, spoke to Roelof Bezuidenhout
about research findings indicating that rotational grazing management has little effect on veld
characteristics across the farm fence lines of South Africa.
Veld survey raises questions
about rotational grazing
ABOVE:
Results from 48
farms across South
Africa revealed that
farm stocking rates
were relatively
higher than those
recommended
by agricultural
extension services.
However, evidence
produced by the
study implied that
the relatively high
stocking rates
were within the
carrying capacity
of farms studied.
FW Archive36 farmer’sweekly 2 august 2019