Optimising stocking rate under commercial and subsistence pastoralism.

Abstract

Hopes for a single criterion of overstocking are forlorn. Livestock may be kept for any of many purposes, and the stocking rate optimal for one is not necessarily so for another. Conflicts might be resolved by (1) recognising the likely reasons for which livestock is kept, (2) identifying the respective functions, (3) devising appropriate strategic models of veld and herbivores, and (4) developing algorithms which aid decisions on at what rate to stock in given circumstances. This approach is illustrated for commercial and subsistence systems in South Africa. In terms of the model, it pays (in the short term) to overgraze. There is apparently no technical solution to this problem.

Keywords: Commercial pastoralism; Farming; grazing ecosystems; herbivores; livestock; model; overstocking; pastoralism; plant-herbivore models; south africa; stocking rate; Stocking rates; Subsistence pastoralism; veld

Journal of the Grassland Society of Southern Africa.