A comparison of continuous and rotational grazing on veld at two stocking rates

Abstract

Two rotational grazing procedures, a four‐paddock system with a 10‐day period of stay and an eight‐paddock system with a 5‐day period of stay, were compared with continuous grazing on veld. The trial was conducted 40 km south of Bulawayo in Zimbabwe, over the six‐year period 1975–81. Using yearling steers, the treatments were applied at two year‐long stocking rates, 1.8 and 2.5 ha steer⁻¹, and were replicated twice. Fresh groups of steers were used in the trial each year. Steer performance was virtually identical in all treatments, except continuous grazing at the lower stocking rate, in which, during the growing season, mass gains were on average 13% higher than those in the other treatments. Although floristic composition changed over the period of the trial, no differential effects of either grazing procedure or stocking rate were detected on the composition.