How clever kraaling can restore bare patches

A veld management strategy, based on an old animal husbandry practice, can benefit both communal farmers and holistic resource managers. Roelof Bezuidenhout reports.

- Roelof Bezuidenhout

Short-duration, low-input overnight kraaling can work wonders for rehabilitating degraded sites or fertilising fallow or abandoned cropland in moist grasslands. Short-duration kraaling can lead to increased grass cover on such bare patches, but, surprisingly, it can lead to more bare ground if kraaling is done where the grass cover is intact.

This is according to research carried out on communal farms in the southern reaches of the Drakensburg in the Matatiele Local Municipality in the Eastern Cape, an area that receives 710mm summer rain per year.

As with other communally grazed mountain grassland areas in the Eastern Cape, the study area is largely characterised by moderate to steep slopes, high stocking rates (up to 1,5 MLU/ha where 0,25 MLU/ha is recommended), continuous grazing of cattle, sheep and goats, little co-ordinated grazing management, and widespread soil erosion and veld degradation.

In addition, invasion by exotic woody species such as wattle has resulted in loss of grass cover and changed soil characteristics, leading to large bare patches with little recovery after clearing.

THE STUDY

There is thus a need for simple, low-cost and effective restoration techniques, especially ones that are feasible and acceptable to livestock owners in communal rangelands.

Planned grazing and resting of veld with the use of herders is already experiencing a revival in the study area, and is showing positive results. Short-duration overnight kraaling seems to be another good candidate, provided it is done correctly.