PART 2: BEEF PRODUCTION
FROM NATURAL VELD And
PLANTED PASTURES
The interaction between grazing animals and the grass
plant
Prof Chris S Dannhauser
2.1 Selection of grass species by the grazing animal
In Part 1 of this series the characteristics of different grass
species were discussed.
Animals are able to “sense” the differences between
different grass species and different plant communities.
When they enter a well-rested camp where all the grasses
(palatable and un-palatable) are grown out, as shown in
Figure 1.1, they will start selecting the more palatable
species and the more palatable areas in the camp first .
Ungrazed |
Unpalatable Semi-palatable Palatable
Grasses Grasses Grasset Pes
Figure 1.1 pie TesDuring the first few days, the palatable species will be
grazed and later on the animals will gradually start grazing
more semi-palatable species, because the leaves of the
palatable ones becomes less. This grazing pattern is shown
in Figure 1.2 below.
Ungxazed
% grazed
% grazed
Unpalatable ——- Semi-palatable Palatable
Grasses Grasses Grasses
Figure 1.2
IF animals stay longer in the camp they will start grazing
the unpalatable species too, as shown in Figure 1.3, and
that can go over to overgrazing.
Unpalatable Semi-palatable Palatable
Grasses Grasses Grasses
Figure 1.3
On every farm and in every camp, different grasses grow,
which can be classified as palatable, semi-palatable and
unpalatable and the grazing pattern animals will Follow,
with these different species, was shown in Figures 1.1, 1.2
& 1.3. IF the animals stay too long in a camp they willover-
graze the veld as shown in Figure 1.3. That will dam ce
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palatable species, because they will be graze too shupalatable species, because they will be graze too short.
IF the animals are taken out before they start grazing the
unpalatable species as shown in Figure 1.2 less harm will
be done. This is called the take half, leave half approach.
2.2 The take half, leave half approach
The theory behind the take half, leave half approach is
that palatable grasses are selected before and at a bigger
scale than semi-palatable and unpalatable grasses. Figure
2 shows to what level the different grasses should be
grazed. Only 2 of semi-palatable and * of palatable
grasses should be removed and the unpalatable ones
should not be grazed The palatable grasses should not be
grazed down to ground level, at least 10 cm of the tuft
should be left.
Habits of the grazing animal
Ungrazed M4 Grazed 24 GrazedUnpalatable
Semi-palatable
Palatable
Figure 2: The end result of grazing according to the take
half, leave half approach.
IF animals stay longer in the camp, over-grazing of the
palatable and semi-palatable grasses can cause permanent
damage to the veld. The Following four photos give an
indication of the difference between un-grazed veld
(Photo 1), the take half/leave half concept (Photo 2),
overgrazing (Photo 3) and severe overgrazing (Photo 4).
Photo 1: An un-grazed campPhoto 2: Take half, leave halve
Photo 3: Over-grazingPhoto 4: Severe over-grazing
2.3 What is the effect of overgrazing on the grass
plant?
The leaves of the grass plant act as a “food Factories”, they
produce sugar and starch and that is the energy source
that is used for the growth of the grass tuft. When plants
are grazed moderately, enough sugar and starch can be
produced to feed the whole grass tuft. The excess energy
will then be stored in the roots and in the base of the
tufts, mainly during late summer and autumn. This stored
energy is essential for over wintering (when there is no
ce
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production of energy) and also for re-growth during *
start of the following growing season,When an area is over-stocked with grazing animals, it will
lead to over-grazing of the grass plants. If animals
defoliate the same tuft repeatedly, the leaves will be
grazed too frequent and too short and that will decline
the sugar and starch (energy) production. In such a
situation the energy reserves, that was stored in the roots,
during the previous autumn, will be utilized. Then the
roots might die off because of energy depletion. If the
over-grazing continues, the complete grass plant will die.
That is the main reason why some parts of South African
veld is in such a bad condition.
Figure 3 shows what happened to the roots of plants
under different grazing intensities.
The plant on the left hand side of the figure was
defoliated (grazed) every 3 weeks, to a height of 14 cm,
and the results showed that a strong root system was left.
On the right hand side the plant was also defoliated every
3 weeks, to a height of 2 cm. It is clear this plant was over
utilized, which resulted in a decline of the root system and
poor growth will Follow in Future. The root system in the
middle is that of a plant grazed to a height of 8 cm), that
was not so harmful to the root system. oeGraze to 14cm
Rest 3 weeks
Graze to8 cm
Rest 3 weeks
Graze to2 cm
Rest 3 weeks
c
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roots2.4. Resting of veld
The very important management principle that was
mentioned earlier is resting of the veld. The consequences
of over-grazing or over-utilization, which was explained
earlier, emphasized the need of regular periods of rest to
keep the grass tufts vigorous. It is also to the benefit of
the animal, because they can graze young, nutritious plant
material in the Form of regrowth after a short rest. This is
only applicable if the stocking rate is realistic because then
the palatable grasses are not grazed too severe. Proper
resting of the veld is possible by using the take half, leave
half approach and to do this a good grazing camp system
is important.
Camp systems will be explained later in this series
Prof Chris S Dannhauser
Cell no (+27) 082 873 4736
E-mail: chriswei@vodamail.co.za
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