Management Interventions to Overcome Seasonal Quantity and Quality Deficits of Natural Rangeland Forages

Rangelands essentially comprise geographical regions dominated by grass with or without scattered woody plants. Rangelands are often considered to function primarily as feed for livestock. In this view, conservation and biodiversity issues are secondary. The alternate view involves recognising rangelands as a biome without a specific function, but where there is an implied responsibility for inventory, maintenance and conservation (Blench & Sommer 1999). Most of the world’s rangelands support grazing or browsing animals in a variety of systems ranging from commercial livestock enterprises on privately owned or controlled land, through commercial enterprises on communally owned and controlled land to subsistence farming, either sedentary or nomadic. On many areas of rangeland on several continents livestock are kept for purposes other than just commercial gain, and objectives of livestock owners vary tremendously as a consequence. Large tracts of rangeland have been formally set aside for conservation purposes, and contain a variety of indigenous herbivores, which are managed largely for conservation purposes with maintenance of biodiversity often a primary objective. An increasing number of private landowners, particularly in Africa, are converting from commercial livestock farming to commercial game farming. While commercial game farming is often seen as a form of conservation, it may differ from classic conservation, as the focus tends to be on utilising game species that generate an income rather than conservation for the sake of conservation in an altruistic sense. Also, the focus tends to be on selected game species rather than the diverse array of fauna and flora present in what is often a highly manipulated system. Irrespective of the livestock production system, game production systems or conservation objectives, any herbivore system on rangeland is dependant on the forage produced by the rangeland.