In search of the ultimate grazing strategy: Part 2

Prof Richard Fynn, of the Rangeland Ecology, Okavango Research Institute, University of Botswana, explains how Facilitative Recursive Grazing (FRG) can improve grazing management

- Roelof Bezuidenhout

Non-selective grazing can only be effectively achieved when both the palatable and unpalatable grasses are kept in a short, high-quality state the entire growing season.

This gives better forage quality and animal performance and promotes non-selective grazing. The only way to get both the palatable and unpalatable grasses grazed down is to focus grazing in priority grazing paddocks and to make sure that the grasses in priority paddocks are levelled to the ground before the spring rains so that even the unpalatable grasses are acceptable to livestock. Cattle will never eat unpalatable grasses if they are not kept short.

DIFFERENT APPROACHES

The aim of priority paddocks is to allow livestock to eat the high-quality regrowth of short-grazed grass and also to promote non-selective grazing. Of course, not all paddocks should be grazed short. One must have reserve paddocks that have a taller grass so that if rains are poor the cattle can be moved there. Also, the grazed paddocks must be given a full year’s rest after grazing.

So, in the split ranch approach, 50% of the paddocks are grazed and 50% rested. The fully rested paddocks not only allow better recovery of palatable perennial grasses but also store up a large reserve of forage for the dry season.

My research on ranches using season-long grazing and resting (SLGR) in Botswana, but which do not use the priority paddock approach, shows that while they improve veld condition over time, the approach can be improved. Allowing cattle to graze extensively in large paddocks, while good for animal performance, results in a lot of selective grazing on the most palatable grasses.

To deal with this problem, ranchers use electric fencing to split up the large (whole) paddocks into much smaller sub-paddocks and then graze them hard with high cattle densities to achieve non-selective grazing.