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MISCELLANEOUS PUBLICATION 1271, U.S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



establishment of strong and competent admin- 

 istrative agencies to define proper management 

 practices. In the absence of professionally-qual- 

 ified agencies, such reserves would be open to 

 misuse, and the lands would probably be better 

 managed by experienced graziers under the pres- 

 ent system. 



Another way of achieving flexibility of stock 

 numbers is through selecting an appropriate 

 grazing enterprise. For example, in the cattle 

 industry, stock numbers are fairly inflexible in 

 an enterprise aimed at producing 3- or 4-year 

 old steers, where annual turnoff is 15 percent 

 or less of the herd. More flexibility is possible in 

 enterprises producing young animals; in poor 

 years, calves can be turned off at weaning but 

 in good years kept for sale as yearlings. In the 

 sheep industry, wethers can be kept in good years 

 but disposed of in poor years. These systems enable 

 rapid reduction of flocks and herds to a breed- 

 ing nucleus but result in rather large fluctua- 

 tions in income from year to year. Their use 

 could be encouraged by developing methods of 

 averaging income over periods of longer than a 

 year. Some progress in this direction has been 

 made in Australia, for example, the drought 

 bonds scheme, and the provision for graziers to 

 average income over several years for taxation 

 purposes. 



As far as grazing systems are concerned, only 

 one — yearlong set stocking — is in general use. 

 Stock are spread over the whole property for 

 the whole year, some regard being given to dif- 

 ferential stock carrying capacities of different 

 parts but none to differential season-of-use re- 

 quirements for maintaining a desirable composi- 

 tion in particular communities. Under such a 

 system, it is not surprising that range degenera- 

 tion is commonly equated to overstocking, where- 

 as in many circumstances it is probably due to 

 mismanagement or undermanagement. 



It is clear from the widespread deterioration 

 in some range types that they have been stocked 

 too intensively, at least under the yearlong sys- 

 tem and possibly under any system. It is likely 

 that lower intensities would not only improve 

 range condition, but would be financially re- 

 warding, because better nutrition would increase 

 productivity and reproduction per animal. Ad- 

 ministrative bodies and graziers are slowly be- 



coming aware of the need to adjust stocking in- 

 tensity to the long term needs of the land. A sys- 

 tem, based on the nature and condition of the 

 land types, for estimating safe carrying capac- 

 ities of properties in normal and drought periods 

 has been developed (7). The system stipulates 

 the degree of reduction of stocking intensity 

 needed as droughts proceed. Like all such sys- 

 tems, there is a danger that the landholder will 

 take the calculated stocking rates, intended as 

 guides, as fixed and legal minimum levels. 



Few trials of rotational grazing systems have 

 been carried out on Australian rangelands. Roe 

 and Allen (31), working on a Mitchell grass 

 pasture in southwest Queensland, found no dif- 

 ference in wool production between continuous 

 and rotational grazing under stocking intensities 

 of 1 sheep per 1 to 3 ha., but a tendency for 

 liveweights to be lower under rotational systems. 

 Mitchell grass was reduced under heavy grazing 

 with all systems, and under medium and light 

 stocking intensities on the summer stocked treat- 

 ments. Plant production was higher under con- 

 tinuous grazing — in fact it was higher for con- 

 tinuous grazing at the medium stocking rate 

 than for rotational grazing at the low rate. Tup- 

 per (unpublished data), working on a Danthonia 

 grassland in a winter rainfall area, has shown 

 that a system in which forage on part of the 

 areas is saved for late summer/early autumn 

 grazing has no advantage, in terms of animal 

 production, over continuous grazing. 



There is undoubtedly scope for testing and ap- 

 plying seasonal grazing systems, in which in- 

 tensity of stocking on particular communities is 

 varied in different seasons, according to the ef- 

 fect on the s'pecies in that community. The need 

 for such systems and the detailed specifications 

 vary tremendously. The main difficulty in devis- 

 ing seasonal grazing s^ystems is the lack of pre- 

 cise knowledge of the phenology of the plant 

 species and of their reaction to grazing at dif- 

 ferent stages. The main problem in their appli- 

 cation is adequate control of stock. 



Some rangelands. particularly in southern 

 Australia, are in such poor condition that graz- 

 ing management alone ( even no grazing for very 

 long periods) may not be sufficient to effect re- 

 covery. Regeneration will need to be assisted by 

 mechanical treatments such as pitting, furrow- 



