A dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Science, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in fulfilment of requirements for the degree of Master of Science. Johannesburg, 1991. / The contribution of browse and grass to the diets of cattle and goats was assessed in relation to
the total biomass of woody foliage and grass available in the study area. Livestock made less
use of browse during the dry season than was shown by studies conducted in the Sahel and
Nylsvley, northern Transvaal.
Goats fed more selectively, utilised newly flushed foliage more and fed upon a greater
variety of woody plant species than did cattle. Browse contribute nore to goat diets than to
cattle diets although goats were less often supplied with browse. For goats, feeding on standing
browse, 'supplied browse and leaf litter occupied 34.7 % of observation time before the
tree/shrub flush and 8.3 % post-flush; for cattle the contributions were 14.7 % and 5.8 %,
respectively. Fruits, flowers and bark were utilised only during the pre-flush period and only by
goats. Goats spent significantly more time grazing and more time browsing than did cattle
during the post-flush period. Agave sisalana (sisal) contributed to cattle diets during the preflush
and post-flush periods, and to goat diets during the pre-flush period.
Since relatively little standing woody foliage is accessible to the animals (16.6 % preflush
and 30.7 % post-flush of the wet season maximum), lopping of woody foliage by herders
substantially increases the amount of food accessible to livestock, and supplied browse was
eaten wherever it was encountered. Aerial cover of grass averaged less than 20 %, grass
biomass ,less than 120 kgDM.ha·t and biomass concentration of grass less than 553.5 gDM.m"3
for catena toplands, catena bottomlands and drainage line thickets.
The low contribution of browse to livestock diets during this study was due to the
scarcity of accessible, palatable forage, exacerbated by the late flush 011 woody plants. In
addition, local people harvesting live wood for fuel may compete with foraging livestock. To
increase the supply of food for livestock further the rollowing practices could be encouraged:
storage of woody foliage litter until the late dry season, use of chemicals to increase the
nutritional value of poor quality browse and establishment of woodlots of palatable, perhaps
leguminous, evergreen woody species for use as livestock fodder. / GR2017
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:wits/oai:wiredspace.wits.ac.za:10539/21651 |
| Date | January 1993 |
| Creators | Davies, S. J. |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | Online resource (34 pages), application/pdf |
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