The Rural Voice, 1988-09, Page 104of the past two years, it seems that
the best results come from larger pad-
docks, three-quarters of an acre in
size, which have a grass -legume mix
dominated by orchard grass and white
clover.
The average stocking rate in the
"rational" grazing. That is "designing
a grazing system that both stimulates
grass growth and regrowth, and
enables efficient harvest by grazing
stock."
Clark is following the ideas of
Voison in her research in that she
could ruin the root system of the
plants. Many North American pasture
specialists, like Ann Clark, think that
his system should be rejected.
In South Africa, at the other end of
the world, 58 per cent of agricultural
land is in pasture. Savory's theories
project was 1.6 steers to 2.1 steers per
acre, and this could vary from 4 to 5
steers per acre in the spring down to 1
steer per acre by the end of the grow-
ing season. The cattle were rotated
depending upon the growth of the
pasture. That could be as often as
every 3 days, down to every 12 days,
allowing each pasture to rest 24 to 36
days.
CONFLICTING THEORIES
Like any aspect of agriculture,
pasture can be managed in different
ways and at different intensities.
Management will depend on where the
farm is, what kind of land is available,
rainfall, and even the breed of cattle.
Formulae for stocking rates differ ac-
cording to how quickly the cattle are
rotated around the paddocks, whether
you believe in selective or non-selec-
tive grazing, and whether you mono -
crop your pasture species or go in for
a legume -grass mix.
Dr. Clark is a proponent of the
French grazing specialist Andre
Voison, who advocated what he called
rotates her cattle depending on how
quickly the grass is growing —
quickly in the spring, slowly in the
summer. She has a high stocking rate
in the spring when the grass is grow-
ing fast, and she takes steers off the
pasture when the summer drought
slows the grass down. She will also
bring hay land into the pasture rotation
after the first cut so that she can
increase the acreage while reducing
the stocking rate for the summer.
There is a connection between
what is being done in South Africa
and the intensive pasture management
in France and Ontario. Allan Savory,
who is a well-known — perhaps
notorious — pasture management
specialist in North America, popular-
ized the idea of rotational or cell
grazing. He is a South African, and
his idea is to have small fenced pad-
docks which are grazed very inten-
sively for very short periods of time
— it could be as short as one day.
Savory's methods are still widely
used, but besides citing the unmanage-
able labour -intensity of his system,
critics say the intensity of grazing
Hereford -cross
steers in the
pasture at the
Elora Research
Station reap the
benefits of Ann
Clark's pasture
management.
The grass in
the foreground
has been top -
clipped; this is
done once a
season.
have made a big impact in South
Africa, but there has been a ground-
swell of objection to this theories.
Des Macaskill agrees that the Savory
system puts too great a strain on the
grass, but his methods of pasture
management are different again from
Savory's, Voisin's, or Clark's, and he
is still getting good results.
MACASKILL IN AFRICA
In the area of South Africa where
Des Macaskill farms, people don't
expect more than 20 inches of rain a
year. Yet his farm is green and lush.
For the past 10 years, he has put all his
energy into improving his grazing
lands and his herd.
He took over a very ill -managed
farm and turned it around by taking
the land out of corn and putting it all
into pasture.
He believes that selective grazing
is the way to go. He leaves his cattle
in the paddock only long enough that
they just eat the most palatable spe-
cies. In this way only the selected
species are stimulated, he says, and
SEPTEMBER 1988 27