Herd management part 1: Grazing animals are part of the land

Herd management is important for ensuring sustainable grazing systems for cattle, goats, and sheep in the different ecosystems on the African continent.

Temple Grandin, a renowned scientist specialising in sustainable agriculture, believes grazing livestock are part
of a sustainable agricultural future.

“Vast amounts of land all around the world can only be used for grazing. It is either too arid or the terrain is too rough for growing crops.”

She believes rotating cattle, sheep, or other livestock between different pastures can improve both soil health and plant biodiversity, which is a sustainable use of land that cannot be cropped.

“At least 20% of the habitable land on earth is not suitable for crops. Rotational grazing systems can be used to improve both soil health and vegetation diversity on arid land. Grazing livestock are also being successfully used to graze cover crops on prime farmland,” she says.

“Modern electric fencing for strip grazing that can run on solar power has made it much easier and more economical to create small paddocks. The animals can be bunched relatively densely to force them to eat all types of vegetation before being moved. This prevents the problem of animals eating only the highly palatable plants and leaving the less palatable plants behind.”

She believes the key is to allow just the right amount of grazing. “Well-managed grazing systems can be truly sustainable, improve soil health, can help sequester carbon and maintain plant biodiversity. The grazing animals are part of the cycle of life and the natural grass ecosystem. They are a natural part of the land.”

Different ecosystems in Africa

An ecosystem comprises a closely interwoven system of plants and animal life in a specific environment and climate, where the people living there have adapted to the conditions and learned to use the resources. Africa has five main kinds of ecosystems, including coastal environments deserts and semideserts, mountain environments, savanna grasslands, and forests. Not all ecosystems are suitable for grazing, but with careful consideration, the available resources can be used sustainably.

Coastal ecosystems

Africa has three coastlines along the Mediterranean Sea in the north, the Atlantic Ocean in the west, and the Indian Ocean in the east. Since the purpose of this series is to discuss grazing by livestock, we shall not dwell on the coastal ecosystem.

Deserts and semi-deserts

Africa has two large deserts, namely the Sahara Desert across the northern part of the continent, and the combined Namib Desert and Kalahari Desert in the southwest. The northern narrow fringe of Africa has a Mediterranean climate and ecosystems with hot dry summers and mild winters. The vegetation is similar to that of southern Spain and Italy.

Sahara Desert

The Sahara, the world’s largest desert, lies to the south of this Mediterranean strip. The Sahara and the adjacent land are divided into the Saharan, Sahelian, and Sudanese zones. Rain is rare and irregular in the Saharan zone, which gets less than six inches of rain per year. Only about 500 species of plants, mostly shrubs and grasses, and few animals live here.

The camel, which is well-adapted to browsing on this vegetation and can go without water for long periods, is an exception. The Sahelian zone, which receives up to 610 millimetres of rain per year and is crossed by the Nile, Niger, and Senegal Rivers, lies south of the Saharan zone. Vegetation consists of thorn trees, bushes, fruits, wild grains, and herbs. Nomadic herders guide cattle, goats, and camels through this region, using temporary water sources such as pools of rainwater.

The Sudanese zone receives more than 610 millimetres of rain and supports a greater variety of plants and animals, as well as agricultural settlements.

A typical image of Serengeti Plains in Kenya, which consists of a broad grassland dotted with large trees and herds of grazing animals such as zebra and antelope. (Source: Pixabay)

Namib and Kalahari deserts

The Namib Desert, along Africa’s southwest coast, gets hardly any rain, but the cold-water currents offshore make the Namib humid and foggy. The vegetation consists of many hardy varieties of grass, and its animal life includes the jackal, hyena, the straighthorned oryx, springbok, and zebra. The nearby Kalahari is a large semidesert region with thorny bush plain or grassland with trees such as acacias, baobab and animals like giraffes and antelope with twisted horns like eland and kudu, as well as gnu.

Montane or mountain ecosystems

The Atlas Mountains stretching across the northwestern corner of Africa, with the High Atlas range with its snowcapped peaks in Morocco, is a prime example of a montane, or mountain ecosystem. The northern slopes receive rain and support high meadows of alpine flowers and grasses, dense thickets of shrub, forests of cedar and pine, and Mediterranean trees such as cypress and olive. The southern slopes are dry with desert vegetation such as date palms and esparto grass used for crafts such as basketry.

While most of sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) is quite flat and low-lying, the eastern part of the continent from Ethiopia to South Africa include several high-lying regions. The Ethiopian Highlands and the Ruwenzori Mountains of Uganda and eastern Congo (Kinshasa) are too high for trees to grow near the peaks. South Africa’s Drakensberg range is low enough to be forested.

Tanzania’s Mount Kilimanjaro, an active volcano, and Kenya’s Mount Kenya, an extinct volcano, are the continent’s two highest peaks. Above the tree line of these mountains, where the temperature is hot during the day and cold at night, alpine ecosystems exist to which the plants and animals have adapted. Below the alpine zone, the montane
zone with its rich plant and wildlife species exists with its numerous animals, including mountain gorillas, monkeys, elephants, buffaloes, rodents and much, much more.

Tanzania’s Mount Kilimanjaro, an active volcano, and Kenya’s Mount Kenya, an extinct volcano, are the continent’s two highest peaks, representing typical montane forests. (Source: Pixabay)

Savannas

More than half of Africa’s land surface is covered in savannas, which is a tropical plain with trees and grass, and some areas are mostly covered in trees. Africa has two main types of savannas, namely fine- and broadleaved savanna. Fine-leaved savanna occur in dry areas with fertile soil and typically short thorny acacia that cover less than 30% of the land.

Grasses grow evenly and are a rich source of grazing for animals. Broad-leaved savannas are found in moist areas with relatively poor soil. Mostly thornless trees cover more than 30% of the land, and the grasses, which grow in tall bunches, is low in nutritional value. Savannas contribute to the economy by providing firewood and timber, grazing for livestock and agriculture. They also contain all of Africa’s game parks that attract thousands of tourists, a growing source of income.

Forests

A forest consists of a lot of trees with interlocking crowns that cast so much shade that no grass grows under the
canopy. Africa’s forest ecosystems include tropical rainforests; thick, high branched forests along rivers in savanna woodlands; and groves of dwarf trees that grow on high, mistwrapped peaks. The major forest areas occur along
the eastern and southern coasts, the central mountains, and in the Guineo-Congolian region that stretches across
central Africa.

The boundaries of these forests are determined by water and human activity. Rainfall and groundwater from rivers or swamps, as well as humans, determine the development and maintenance of forests. Forests provide many useful products, including timber, skins, meat, and medicines, but overuse by humans can also devastate forests.

Deforestation is caused by expanding populations, the timber industry, roadbuilding, large-scale agriculture, and major movements of people, including refugees. Sustainable usage aims to make use of the forests for economic and
survival purposes without destroying it. This series is about sustainable grazing in these ecosystems.

Africa’s savannas contribute to the economy by providing firewood and timber, grazing lands for livestock and agriculture, as well as grand opportunities for tourism as people flock to the continent to see its wildlife. (Source: Pixabay)

Source references

Grandin, T. (2022) Grazing Cattle, Sheep, and Goats Are Important Parts of a Sustainable
Agricultural Future. Animals 2022, 12(16), 2092

https://doi.org/10.3390/ani12162092
https://www.mdpi.com/2076-2615/12/16/2092

Ecosystems. Geography https://geography.name/ecosystems/