Analyse And Plan Before Investing In Cultivated Grazing

For many, the idea of cultivated grazing invokes an idyllic image of grasslands gently blowing in the breeze. There is also a growing number of producers who are considering expanding their livestock components and reducing the area under grain production due to the country’s erratic rainfall.

- Dr WA Lombard

Marginal fields are usually earmarked for this transition, but is it worthwhile establishing cultivated pastures on these fields?

A number of benefits

Cultivated grazing has the potential to improve soil health, prevent erosion and reduce weed invasion. It can also be used as an affordable livestock feed. In addition, perennial cultivated grazing that has been established and managed correctly, has a productive lifespan of at least five to ten years.

When doing their planning, producers can include good quality cultivated grazing as a standard option in their fodder flow programmes. This grazing can aid in increasing the farm’s carrying capacity, provided it is adequately fertilised. Producers who do not have a lot of land available, will be able to increase their production.

Disadvantages of this system

With so many crops and mixtures available for cultivated grazing, producers will have no problem supplementing their fodder flow during certain times of the year.

Then again, cultivated grazing can mean additional capital expenditure – firstly to establish the grazing and then to maintain it. Most experts recommend a good fertilisation programme to improve the pasture’s yield and quality, especially in the case of irrigated grazing. If grazing is not fertilised adequately and managed correctly, it will require re-establishment before long.