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South Africa is known for its vast and open rangeland areas, but how much of these areas are available for livestock farming? It would be a very dangerous assumption to believe that all natural vegetation contribute to livestock grazing, but to put exact figures on the table will also not be that simple. The aim of this desktop study was to provide...
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... 95 (Van der Westhuizen et al., 2020). A recent report by Avenant (2019) stated that the grassland biome of South Africa covers a total area of 32 534 079 ha (hectares), of which the available livestock grazing area is 21 560 559 ha currently being grazed by 3 934 838 large stock unit (LSU) heads. According to Meissner et al. (1983), a large stock unit is the equivalent of an animal weighing 450kg, gaining 500g per day in weight on the pasture with a digestible energy (DE) concentration of 55%. ...
... In the Free State Province, the total grasslands area is 12 982 516 ha, with an available grazing area of 8 538 734 ha grazed by 1 333 815 LSU heads (Avenant, 2019), indicating an average stocking rate of 6.4 ha/LSU. According to Mokhesengoane et al. (2021), rangeland resource planning and management depends on climatic variations such as rainfall and temperature, influencing the stocking rate adjustments. ...
Extensive livestock production in South Africa depends on rangeland productivity and effective livestock management practices. This study aims to identify various processes to mitigate the adverse effects of droughts on livestock farming in Bloemfontein, South Africa. Stocking rates on land-reform farms during drought, rangeland management impacts on the reproduction performance of beef cattle and rangeland condition and soil data were investigated. The results showed a significant difference between rangeland condition and soil carbon, demonstrating the essential role of rangeland management in carbon sequestration. In conclusion, knowledge regarding stocking rates and prudent rangeland management practices (condition and carbon sequestration) is paramountfor sustainable livestock farming during climate change. Intensive training of farmers in sustainable rangeland management is recommended to mitigate the effect of droughts and to ensure sustainable livestock production with a minimised carbon footprint.
... We further derived an estimate of crop residue yields from maize production as based on Kutu (2012) who reports a stover proportion of 0.41 for maize production in Limpopo. The so-calculated maize residue amount was added to an estimate of rangeland biomass, as extracted from Martens et al. (2020) and Avenant (2019), to obtain an estimate of the forage supply. The survey data was analyzed in R using descriptive statistics to report on the perception of feed gaps across farmers and characterize the quality of feed and soil resources across sites. ...
... On the supply side we, consequently, used maize production and rangeland biomass production to estimate forage supply. According to Avenant (2019), approximately 7.4 million ha of rangeland is available for grazing in the Limpopo province. Maize is the most commonly grown crop, especially on smallholder farms. ...
Rural livestock farmers in the semiarid and arid areas of Southern Africa face large uncertainties due to a high intraseasonal and year-to-year variability in rainfall patterns which affect forage resources. Creating resilient communal livestock farming systems will require the understanding of feed gaps as perceived by livestock farmers as well as an assessment of available feed resources. In this chapter, we estimated the annual feed balance (i.e., forage supply minus forage demand) based on statistical data and described the perception of feed gaps across 122 livestock farmers in Limpopo province, South Africa. In addition, we analyzed available feed and soil resources during the dry season across land use types. We found a negative feed balance, an indication of feed gaps for livestock farms, mainly during the winter and spring seasons. Farmers perceived a combination of factors such as drought, infrastructure, capital, and access to land as the major causes of feed gaps. Furthermore, our analyses of feed and soil resources point to low crude protein (e.g., ~5% in rangeland biomass) and poor soil nutrient contents (e.g., % N < 0.1). To support rural policies and improve the performance of communal livestock systems, there is a need to combine the most appropriate site-specific options in optimizing the feed supply.
