The Namibian livestock industry is in decline. There is a large-scale loss of palatable perennial grasses, widely spread bush encroachment, and Namibia is regarded as a country that will be severely affected by climate change.

To counter this trend, the Department of Agriculture, Water and Forestry (MAWF), together with industry partners such as the Namibian Farmers’ Union, initiated and developed an innovative rangeland policy that can annually add N$4 billion to the GDP if fully implemented.

ProAgri BNZ will publish extracts from the policy document to make sure that all farmers understand this plan that can help them to survive the next drought.

The best practices presented in this section are intended to give an idea of methods available and how they have been applied. Farmers need to consider how these practices can be best applied on their farms, and to learn from the presented best practice approaches in order to formulate a plan for their particular farming conditions. Once a selected approach has been chosen, the farmer needs to ensure that the principles are being applied and that progress is monitored over time.

Case study 1: Eight-camp flexible rotation combined with bush thinning

Okahandja farmer Hendrik Botha started controlling bush encroachment and improving his livestock and rangeland management in 1996. He now has 40 camps with nine herds, each using four to six camps on his farm, Agagia, north-east of Okahandja. Between January and April of each year, he tries to allow between 60 and 90 days’ recovery of each camp. He combines this approach with bush thinning to optimise production.

According to Hendrik, there are two key strategies to increase production:

bush clearing and a four to six camp rotation that allows for a recovery or rest period of 60 to 90 days. He believes that in order to obtain an increased sustainable stocking rate, soil condition needs to be enhanced to increase biodiversity. Initially, bush clearing may be achieved mainly by aerial spraying, followed by arboricide applied to tree stumps. He budgets for bush control annually.

His grazing management has resulted in a steady increase in perennial grasses with a resultant increase in sustainable stocking rate. He advised that farmers should increase stocking rate based on the quantity of grass available, but that they must also focus on animal fertility and animal production.

According to Hendrik, the higher the stocking rate on the farm, the better the rangeland and overall management must be.

“Critical monitoring of animals and rangeland is important all year round. If animals graze more than the predetermined height of the grass, they should be moved, likewise when new grass shoots are eaten or if the lick supplement intake becomes too expensive. A good time to assess grass is in May when animal numbers should be adjusted for the non-growing season.”

Principles of grass root development

1. Recovery of grass can only take place within the rainy season.

2. Root development is negatively correlated to above ground growth.

3. Root development is most active in early spring and late summer.

4. Roots cannot grow in dry soil and the loss of root mass is double that of above ground loss as a result of degradation.

5. The more severe the defoliation, the greater the root die-off and the longer the recovery needed.

6. A full year’s rest increases production in the following year.

Hendrik’s sound advice is to “evaluate grazing regularly, know the rangeland management principles, apply them consistently and focus to implement all aspects in maintaining a balance between rangeland and livestock management.”

Case study 2: Split ranch approach (long recovery periods)

The interrelationship between vegetation, grazing animals, soil and climate is complex and dynamic. Finding and maintaining a balance between these factors for optimum, sustainable economic production has been an ongoing challenge for livestock farmers in drier climates of the world, including Namibia.

Profitable livestock production entails a fine balance between forage production, utilisation efficiency, an understanding of spatial and seasonal variation in natural resources, and animal behaviour. “I do not like to talk about specific systems for rangeland management because one person can implement a certain system successfully, while another can use the same system with disastrous results,” said Riaan Dames, rangeland management specialist and farmer, at the 22nd National Rangeland Forum held in Otjiwarongo at the end of last year.

That said, however, he favours the split ranch grazing approach for rangeland management, which entails resting of 50% of a farm’s grazing annually, while the other 50% is grazed. In other words, if a specific camp is grazed in one growing season, it will be rested completely in the next growing season. The camps being grazed in a particular growing season are heavily utilised and therefore need a long period of one complete growing season to recover. Talking about the main principles of the strategy, he emphasised that utilising half the land and resting the other half should not be a fixed rule, as it depends on individual circumstances and the initial condition of the rangeland and what happens in a specific place.

“In practice, people are utilising anything between 50% and 60% for resting, depending on the year, sometimes even resting land for two consecutive years.”

Riaan says, “If you overstock, you will pay the price. Ultimately, it is about the litres of water used per kg of meat produced.”

Riaan estimates that depending on soil condition, 13 to 20 kg of meat is being produced per ha per annum in Namibia with 450 mm of rain annually, compared with 40 to 45 kg per ha in South Africa. This means that Namibia’s production can still be significantly improved. In times of drought, where the rainfall deviates more than 25% of the mean annual rainfall, livestock numbers should be adjusted by 10%. If a farmer can avoid selling when everyone else is selling due to low forage availability, then higher prices are likely to be achieved.

Other considerations when choosing animals are forage structure and type and survival economics influenced by the cost of controlling predators and market requirements.

In conclusion, Riaan stated that the split ranch approach he promotes is applicable in areas receiving from 100 mm to 1 200 mm of rain annually, with varied utilisation efficiencies. Grazing plans need to be flexible and animals should be moved to areas where grass is well established.

Successful rangeland Dzoti Conservancy Grazing Plan Rules include the following:

• All livestock (cattle, goats, sheep, horses and donkeys) should stay in the area north of the tar road from January to June, depending on water availability.

• All livestock should move to the grazing area south of the tar road in July, and stay there until December.

• Exclusive wildlife and tourism zones should be avoided by livestock.

• Livestock from the three villages (Silonga, Malengalenga and Kakiramupepu) will stay independent from each other in the grazing areas.

• An assessment of forage availability for the dry season ahead is done annually, at the end of the growing season.

• The conservancy’s livestock committee will discuss options to adjust livestock numbers to available forage sources every year.

• Suitable punishment will be enforced for non-compliance with the grazing plan rules.

• The grazing plan is flexible and should be reviewed and adapted periodically.

• The conservancy plans to install predator proof infrastructure (lion fences) in grazing areas to reduce human-wildlife conflict.

• Livestock will be herded and ‘kraaled’ within the grazing area in such a way as to minimise contact/ conflict with wildlife, especially predators.

• The livestock committee, under the auspices of the Dzoti Conservancy Management Committee, will oversee the implementation of the grazing plan.

Case study 3: Mara Fodder Bank grazing management approach (very long recovery periods)

Results from the Sandveld Research Station and Farm Donkerbos include the following: Jerome Boys, who is a pasture science specialist in the Directorate of Agricultural Research and Development (DARD) in the Ministry of Agriculture, Water and Forestry, explained the Mara Fodder Bank grazing management approach at last year’s National Rangeland Forum: “The fodder bank grazing management approach allows for a full growing season’s rest to a certain portion of the veld on a rotational basis. In theory, this should enable the land user to build up a fodder bank to be grazed at a different time of the year.”

Jerome presented this approach together with Roelie Venter, who applies this approach on his farm, Donkerbos, in the Omaheke region. The fodder bank grazing management approach started in 2004 at Sandveld and was later adopted by Roelie. Both the Sandveld Research Station and Farm Donkerbos are situated in a camelthorn savannah area with primarily sandy soils and an average long-term rainfall that varies from 350 to 400 mm per annum. The dominant woody plant species are Terminalia sericea, Senegalia mellifera, Vachellia erioloba, and Dichrostachys cinerea, of which the densities can vary from 800 to 4 000 plants per ha.

1. Identify and plot different veld types of equal potential and determine grazing capacity.

2. Divide year into three seasons: growing season, winter and spring.

Guidelines for implementing the fodder bank approach

1. Know that the different grass species vary in terms of palatability (consider this when determining the grazing capacity for an area).

2. Accept that animal performance is linked to sufficient quantities of palatable grasses.

3. Division of a farm should be planned to make provision for differences in the veld.

4. Maintain correct stocking rates by adapting animal numbers to predetermined grazing capacities.

5. Keep records of animal numbers and the number of days a camp was rested and grazed.

Should unpalatable species increase, the stocking density should be increased to utilise the unpalatable species.

Some principles applicable to any grazing approach fulfilled by the Mara Fodder Bank grazing management approach are:

1. Perennial grasses can only rest and recover during the rainy season.

2. Every farm has its own production potential that must be realised.

3. The livestock herd must adapt to the farm’s potential, not the other way around.

The rest of the rangeland approaches or case studies will be discussed in our next edition.

*The National Rangeland Management Policy (NRMP) was approved in 2012. In 2014, the NRMP Project was commissioned in support of this policy under the Ministry of Agriculture, Water and Forestry (MAWF), to address the declining natural resource base in Namibia.

Extract from Reviving Namibia’s Livestock Industry, Regenerative Livestock Production Trends, Key Profit Drivers, Case Studies and Recommendations, NRMP Best Practice Strategy Document (Revised edition from 2012 NRMPS), Based on Namibia Rangeland Management Policy (NRMP): A