African Journal of Range & Forage Science 18 (1) 2001, 1—3
©2001 NISC Pty Ltd, www.nisc.co.za

Presidential Address – 2001: The role of professional societies in the dissemination of information

CR Hurt

ARC – Range and Forage Institute, PO Box 1055, Hilton 3245, South Africa

e-mail: [email protected]

Delivered at Congress 36, Aventura Aldon, Free State Province, South Africa, 22 January 2001

The title of this address is ‘The role of professional societies in the dissemination of information’. In this title I refer to ‘professional societies’ as those neutral organisations that act as arbitrators and protectors of disciplines, and in our case, specifically range and forage science. In my address, I will put an obvious bias towards our discipline because this discipline is the one that we have an interest in and is the reason why most of us are here today. In representing our discipline, the Grassland Society of Southern Africa is comprised of a number of eminent scientists, technologists and practitioners from a variety of different institutions or agricultural and ecological businesses. As a body that is elected to lead the discipline in southern Africa, it can therefore afford to take a neutral stance and be critical or supportive of practices having an impact on the discipline. As I will point out in my address, this is of paramount importance in the flow of information between essentially the scientist and the practitioner. Several addresses by previous Presidents of the Society have made reference to the importance of information and the dissemination of knowledge, particularly in the rapidly changing environments that agriculture in southern Africa has been faced with in the past decade or two. Reference was also made to the fact that information is important, yet I see relatively little change in the GSSA being proactive about information processes over the 35 years that the Society has existed. I would therefore like to record my views on this important facet of the management of the Society based on thoughts about the process during my term as President.

First, I would like to set the information scene by sketching a simple algorithm. Agricultural or ecological practices are faced with challenges or constraints to management. These are then researched and information is consequently made available in the form of some form of remedy to the practitioner, who continues with management until the next set of constraints is met. In theory this model should be associated with continual refinement until we reach the pinnacle that says, ‘We know it all’. Is that a realistic statement? Do we know it all at this stage? I have my doubts, but faced with widely publicised research budget cuts, we possibly need to compromise by collating and using to the best of our ability the information that has been gathered over the past 50 years. The new emphasis on the emergent agricultural sector should not be viewed negatively, but rather as a major challenge -- how can we best use the knowledge at our disposal to apply adaptive management in its truest sense in these situations. The research emphasis comes in through intensive monitoring of the impacts of such decisions and evaluating the results. Second, if we review the concept of ‘knowledge’ very broadly, and particularly in the discipline of range science, there are two phases, viz. information generation (research) and information transfer (extension). I would like to deal with each of these in a bit more depth, as I believe these are the crux of the business of the GSSA (or other similar professional bodies).

Research

The GSSA does not have a research function per se, yet it has a responsibility to its members, many of whom are directly involved in research as a profession. The Society should be supporting these members as a collective watch-dog or a neutral arbitrator of the discipline, yet I question whether it is currently doing this successfully. Yes, we are serving our members in the dissemination of research material through the Journal and at our annual congresses, and indeed we have an excellent track record of this over the past 35 years.

I believe that it is now opportune for the Society to enter a new phase of direct involvement in unbiased research planning in the country, and we certainly have the infrastructure to do this -- the Professional Affairs Committee and the Trust. Previous Presidential addresses have referred to the ‘demise’ of the old model of research in this country that was supported by virtually unlimited research budgets. Nowadays research institutions are being made increasingly accountable for scarce research funds, and the outputs of most research endeavours are closely audited. I believe that this is good, as it makes our collective research effort more effective. Where it does fall down, however, is in national coordination. In spite of institutions such as the ARC supposedly having a national function, there is probably more profession territoriality now than 10 to 15 years ago. For example, VELDSTOCK is an excellent concept in attempting to coordinate information generation and transfer actions in the livestock production sector of the country, yet its major critics claim that it is merely a vehicle to obtain funding for the ARC — Range and Forage Institute. In the light of such criticism, is it not opportune for a neutral body such as our PAC to approach central government and sell the concept of the GSSA coordinating a ‘VELDSTOCK’, and then allocating research and extension functions to the best bidder?

Extension

Our 35 year history of involvement in the generation and dissemination of scientific information is laudable for a relatively small discipline such as ours. We have always maintained exceptionally high publishing standards (e.g. 35 years of peer-reviewed publications), and our scientific congresses and symposia (e.g. the two Valley Bushveld Symposia and the Natal Bushveld Symposium) have received accolades. Over the past 15 years or so, the Society put more technical emphasis on the practitioner. Many successful Prestige Grazing Days have been held throughout southern Africa, and were aimed at putting, sometimes controversial, information on the table and highlighting the interface between the scientist and top commercial producers. Our Developing Areas Symposia were also successful in addressing issues somewhat new to the traditional discipline, i.e. communal livestock management and the socio-economic challenges that these pose to resource sustainability. The Bulletin was another vehicle that stimulated debate within the discipline and the associated Special Publications provided valuable information to producers and scientists alike. A relatively unexplored field from the perspective of the GSSA is publishing in the popular agricultural media. A start in this respect has been made by ARC — Range and Forage Institute staff at Cedara, and publication of technical information under a joint GSSA — institutional banner has been approved by some of the widely read agricultural periodicals. Another area of information transfer is theoretically through the PAC and its Professional Register, one of the functions of which is to recommend competent specialists for consulting work, although this has not been widely applied. The Policy Response Protocol of the Society, financed by Trust, is aimed at working closely with the Professional Register, but to date has responded to only one example of proposed legislation, the new weed regulations. This is not due to a lack of interest, as funds are available for the required work; it is more the reduced capacity that we are faced with in the subcontinent at the moment.

The question now arises, is it the function of the GSSA, as a representative body of the discipline, to coordinate extension efforts to land-users? While it may be argued that this is a provincial function I would disagree. Surely the overriding objective of any extension effort should be to provide the best information available to the end-user? My experience with provincial agricultural authorities is that their top management is usually constrained by political objectives and consequently these efforts are conducted in-house. This is where the GSSA can play a role. Once again through our PAC we are able to recommend the ‘best’ expert for any of a range of specialised fields. The problem that now arises is that it is usually inappropriate for an official employed by a PDA to be involved in activities in another province (a good example is that of KwaZulu-Natal officials working in the Umzimkulu District of the province that falls under the Eastern Cape). However, if we apply the remuneration model described last year by Kevin Kirkman in his Presidential Address, this can be overcome.

One of the major constraints on information dissemination by the Society is the diminishing capacity in the discipline; from 96 researchers in the early 1990s we are now faced with probably less than a quarter who are still active in their profession. >From the strong institutional research teams of the 1980s we now have a fragmented research base with possibly only three provinces with semblances of research capacity, three parastatal research organisations, some provincial conservation agencies and several university departments that offer range and forage science courses. A year ago, Kevin Kirkman, in his Presidential Address, highlighted the need for institutional flexibility in employing specialists in the discipline and out-sourcing certain research and extension functions. This scenario would be ideal to facilitate the implementation of the model I described above. For example, a regional authority approaches the GSSA to organise a field day and together a programme is agreed and speakers are identified. The organisers make funds available for consulting specialists to present ideas at the field day. The specialists are then directly accountable, because they are being remunerated, to the organisers for their presentation. The PAC would also be responsible for setting a fee structure for professionals based on their experience and ability. Pie in the sky? Possibly, because the big question is ‘Who will do the work?’. This is where the Trust comes in. One of the constitutional objects of the Society is ‘The creation of a Trust Fund if and when deemed necessary to further specific objects which would best be achieved by accumulating funds separately from those needed to meet the normal expenses of the Society’. Based on these objects I believe that we should be looking at using Trust funds to financially support the PAC in an endeavour to provide this unbiased service to the discipline and the industry.

I have presented some ideas and made some suggestions about our traditional involvement in information dissemination. A totally new field is the World Wide Web. Our website has basic information in the form of on-line contents of the Proceedings, the Journal and the Special Publications, and a down-loadable file of abstracts. The potential of the Web as an instrument for making information freely available is enormous. The GSSA is merely starting in this field. From 2001 the publication of the Journal will be out-sourced and one of the objectives of this move is to initiate electronic publishing of our collective information. Our introduction to the so-called ‘global village’ is the threshold of an exciting new era, and one that will be of great benefit to our members, contributors to the Journal, and the Society as a whole.

In conclusion, I would like to summarise my views on our way forward in the information field.

1 Professional organisations are independent of any political constraints that beleaguer the government and parastatals institutions, and represent an unbiased stance towards, in our case, range and forage management issues, particularly funding, i.e. they represent the discipline without any vested interests.

2 Professional organisations should play an integral role in research and development planning, and should provide an independent, unbiased evaluation of any needs reached by consensus (e.g. delegated to the GSSA’s Professional Affairs Committee).

3 We must continue to facilitate the dissemination of information to the scientific community through annual congresses and the Journal. We need to explore the expansion of the focus of the discipline and our means of disseminating information (congresses, meetings and publications) by pooling financial and human resources with similar organisations (e.g. wildlife science, animal science).

4 We must actively plan to reinforce our place in managing the discipline and selling it to government decision-makers.

We have come a long way in the past 35 years and have set high standards and a solid base for information dissemination. We cannot let this all go to waste. I am excited about the future of the discipline, and would like to end off with a quote from Sir Winston Churchill:

‘This is not the end, maybe not even the beginning of the end, but it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning’.

African Journal of Range & Forage Science 18 (1) 2001, 5—12
©2001 NISC Pty Ltd, www.nisc.co.za

Grazing behaviour and diet selection of Barotse cattle on a communally grazed floodplain in west Zambia

RMT Baars^1,2* and JJ Ottens²

1 Department of Animal Sciences, Alemaya University, PO Box 138, Dire Dawa, Ethiopia

2 Department of Veterinary and Tsetse Control Services, Department of Agriculture, Mongu, Zambia

* Corresponding author, e-mail: [email protected]

Received 6 September 1999, revised 24 October 2000

Grazing behaviour and diet selection of cattle were studied on a communally grazed floodplain and its adjacent wooded uplands in western Zambia to identify the interaction between basic herd management practices, foraging behaviour and body condition of cattle. On average, the cattle spent nine hours and 29 minutes (SD = 27 minutes) outside the kraal, with a range from about 8 hours in the dry season to almost 11 hours in the wet season, depending on the morning temperature and milking time. A significant (P<0.001) linear relationship between the time spent outside the kraal and time spent grazing was found. The Echinochloa spp.—Vossia cuspidata grass association was intensively grazed for the largest part of the year (44% of the total grazing time). During the flood season cattle grazed largely along the floodplain edge instead of the adjacent woodlands, which resulted in a negligible intake of browse. Body condition of all categories of cattle was significantly lower during the flood season. It was concluded that during this season cattle should graze more hours daily than they presently do, to minimise the drop in body condition as much as possible, and to make more intense use of the forage resource of the woodland.

Keywords: body condition, browse, grassland, pastoralism, range management

African Journal of Range & Forage Science 18 (1) 2001, 13—23
©2001 NISC Pty Ltd, www.nisc.co.za

The effect of different fire treatments on the population structure and density of the Marula, Sclerocarya birrea (A.Rich.) subsp. caffra (Sond.) kokwaro (Kokwaro & Gillet 1980) in the Kruger National Park

OS Jacobs* and R Biggs

Scientific Services, Kruger National Park, Private Bag X402, Skukuza 1350, South Africa

* Corresponding author, e-mail: [email protected]

Received 1 August 2000, accepted 10 December 2000

To determine the influence of frequency and season of burn on the growth structure and density of Sclerocarya birrea, six replicated fire treatments of the experimental burning plot trial were surveyed in the Sclerocarya birrea / Acacia nigrescens savanna of the central Kruger National Park. Studies were also conducted in an exclosure to determine the success of recruitment of Sclerocarya birrea individuals across a range of fire intensities in the absence of herbivory. The results indicated that the lower canopy structure (individuals <2m) was greatly affected by fire, whereas density was unaffected. The lower canopy generally responded to the interaction between frequency and season, and not to the main effects of season or frequency. August triennial burns had the greatest impact on the total seedling structure, with higher fire intensities resulting in the development of a multi-stemmed morphology.

Keywords: fire frequency, fire intensity, fire season, management fire, prescribed fire, savanna

African Journal of Range & Forage Science 18 (1) 2001, 25—29
©2001 NISC Pty Ltd, www.nisc.co.za

The effect of supplements of crop residues based diets on the performance of steers grazed on natural pasture during the dry season

EM Aregheore

Department of Agricultural Science (Animal Production Unit), College of Education, PMB 1251, Warri, Delta State, Nigeria

e-mail: [email protected]

Received 16 February 2000, revised 8 November 2000, accepted 11 December 2000

Twenty-four White Fulani steers, 20—26 months old, mean initial live weight of 270.6 ± 0.5kg, were divided into three treatment groups to investigate the effects of crop residues supplementation on performance when grazed on natural pasture during the dry season in the central zone of Delta State, Nigeria. The treatments were (1) forage + groundnut shell (GNS) supplement, (2) forage + cassava peels (CaP) supplement and (3) grazing on forage only. All animals were grazed on natural pasture during the five months dry season period (November 1994 — March 1995). Body weight change, body condition scores (BCS), nutrient digestibility coefficient and economic benefits were the parameters investigated. Body weight changes were 6.3 ± 1.5, 8.4 ± 0.8 and 3.6 ± 1.2kg, for steers on treatments 1, 2 and 3, respectively. Live weight gain was better (P<0.05) in treatments 1 and 2. However, live weight gain was much better (P<0.05) in CaP steers than GNS steers. Nutrient digestibility coefficients by steers on treatments 1, 2 and 3 followed the pattern observed in live weight gain. Supplemented steers had higher (P<0.05) digestibility coefficients than steers that grazed forage only. Digestibility values between treatments 1 and 2 were also different (P<0.05) from each other. The profit margin of supplemented steers was above those steers that grazed only. Socio-economically, it was advantageous to supplement steers with crop residues when grazing on natural pasture in the dry season. Results of this trial demonstrated that steers can maintain their live weight by grazing on natural pasture. However, supplementation with crop residue diets improved live weight gain, BCS and apparent nutrient digestibility coefficients during the dry season. Finally, the ability of the steers on grazing only to maintain their live weight during the period demonstrated the nutritional significance of available natural pasture in the central zone of Delta State, Nigeria during the dry season.

Keywords: Steers, body condition score, pasture, crop residues, dry season, Delta, Nigeria

African Journal of Range & Forage Science 18 (1) 2001, 31—35
©2001 NISC Pty Ltd, www.nisc.co.za

Overwintering beef animals on kikuyu (Pennisetum clandestinum) – its effect on animal performance and soil fertility

WD Gertenbach*, N Miles and IB Stewart

KwaZulu-Natal Department of Agriculture, Private Bag X9059, Pietermaritzburg 3200, South Africa

* Corresponding author, e-mail: [email protected]

A large proportion of the nutrients ingested by grazing animals are returned to the pasture in dung and urine. These by-products of animal digestion contain many ingredients necessary for plant growth, including nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P) and potassium (K). Disadvantages include a tendency for K levels to increase in soils where large quantities of animal waste are applied. A field study was undertaken on kikuyu pastures on the Cedara Research Station in the Midlands of KwaZulu-Natal in order to evaluate the effects of excretal returns on animal performance and soil properties. Two treatments (T1 and T2) involved no overwintering on kikuyu, followed by no N fertilisation during summer (T1) or the application of 250kg of N/ha during the summer (T2). The third treatment comprised overwintering on the kikuyu with no N fertilisation during the subsequent summer (T3). Overall, initial live mass of the trial animals was 221.6 ± 3.1kg and the live mass gain was 67.6 ± 3.1, 96.2 ± 3.1 and 80.7 ± 3.1kg per steer for T1, T2 and T3 respectively. As expected, the K levels in the soils of the dunged pasture increased. Before N fertilisation of kikuyu pastures with a relatively high fertility status is undertaken, overwintering cattle on the pastures should be considered. Fertiliser N should only be applied if the expected increased return in livestock sales is greater than the cost of the N fertilisation.

Keywords: increased potassium, dung, excreta

African Journal of Range & Forage Science 18 (1) 2001, 37—41
©2001 NISC Pty Ltd, www.nisc.co.za

Seasonal herbage production from two range types in southern Mozambique

1 Texas Agricultural Experiment Station, 1229 Northe US Hwy 281, Stephenville, TX 76401—9698, USA

2 Instituto de Produção Animal, CP 1410, Maputo, Mozambique

* Corresponding author, e-mail: [email protected]

Estimating ideal stocking rates in southern Mozambique based on range productivity is difficult since forage and foggage production of range types receiving different amounts of rainfall have not been quantified to date. Exclosures were constructed in upland and alluvial range types in southern Mozambique and forage yields were measured over 6 years on sub-plots harvested when grasses reached 25% flower, in May or in October. Herbage yields were highly correlated (>0.90) to seasonal rainfall that varied from 498 to 837mm yr^-1. Upland range produced an average 2.6Mg herbage DMha^-1yr^-1 while alluvial soils averaged 6.4MgDMha^-1yr^-1. The 25% flower subplots out-yielded (P>0.05) the other harvests only in the first season while the May harvests had greater herbage production (P<0.05) in all other seasons except the high rainfall year. Herbage phosphorus concentration was 13% greater in the alluvial range sites while acid detergent fibre and lignin concentrations were 21.7% and 47.9% higher, respectively, in the May harvests compared to the 25% flower treatments. Average nitrogen values were 35% lower in the May harvests than in the 25% flower harvests but did not decrease further in the October foggage. Harvest regime did not affect (P>0.10) the principal species’ relative contribution to herbage from season one to season six. Urochloa mosambicensis decreased in the upland range over the trial, perhaps as a result of successive poor-rainfall seasons.

Keywords: veld, biomass, foggage, stockpiled forage, species composition, forage quality, rainfall

African Journal of Range & Forage Science 18 (1) 2001, 42—53
©2001 NISC Pty Ltd, www.nisc.co.za

The quantification of grazing capacity from grazing - and production values for forage species in semi-arid grasslands of southern Africa

HC van der Westhuizen¹*, HA Snyman², WLJ van Rensburg² and JHJ Potgieter³