Grazing rotation in the annual-dominated rangelands of the Sahel

Short-duration rotation grazing was compared with deferred grazing in a 3-year experiment at ICRISAT, Niger. Short-duration grazing used a mixed herd (2 steers, 4 sheep and 4 goats) and cycles of 15-21 days in the wet season and 91 days in the dry season. Wet season grazing compared high (83-126 kg W/ha) and moderate (35-37 kg W/ha) stocking rates. In the second grazing system, the paddocks were ungrazed in the wet season and grazed in the dry season in 2 cycles of 91 days with a herd twice as large as in short-duration rotation grazing, such that overall stocking rates in the 2 systems were similar. Herbage yields were related to annual rainfall, with grazing having limited effect on yield. In 1996, herbage production under short-duration rotation grazing was greater than under protection (+31 percent ) or deferred grazing (+9 percent ), but this was reversed with poor rains in 1997. Range condition in 1996 showed that moderate stocking rate favours grasses over dicots and results in more palatable herbage. Continuous grazing at high stocking rate promoted unpalatable dicots and a few poorly palatable grasses. From 1997 to 1998, grasses declined dramatically in all treatments, with unpalatable dicots exceeding 70 percent .

Bibliographic Details

Main Authors:	Hiernaux, Pierre H.Y., Fernández Rivera, S.
Format:	Conference Paper biblioteca
Language:	English
Published:	International Rangeland Congress, Inc. 1999
Subjects:	rangelands, grazing systems, grasslands, grasses, botanical composition, stocking rate, continuous grazing, short duration grazing, deferred-rotation grazing, cattle, sheep, goats,
Online Access:	https://hdl.handle.net/10568/50621
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