Problems of Management of Grassland under Low Rain- Fall Conditions in the Union of South Africa

It was originally suggested that this paper should deal with problems associated with the management of grazings under low rainfall conditions and the title submitted was “Problems of management of grassland under low rainfall conditions in South Africa.” It was decided, however, that as much of the veld under low rainfall conditions was not grassland, it would be better to deal with the main veld regions in areas of low rainfall. The next decision to be made was what was to be considered as “low rainfall” and, after a careful study of the main veld types, it was decided that low rainfall areas would include those which enjoyed an annual rainfall of 20 inches or less. Such areas occupy approximately 60 per cent of the Union of South Africa and embrace nearly 40 major vegetation types which cannot be treated separately here. For the purpose of this paper, the low rainfall areas have been classified into six broad ecological regions which together comprise a total area of approximately 265,000 square miles. In this classification various vegetal regions with similar characteristics and problems have been grouped together. The six main regions are: 1. The Open, Sweet Grassveld. 2. The Semi-arid Karoo of Summer Rainfall. 3. ‘The Arid Karoo of Summer Rainfall. 4. The Winter Rainfall Karoo. 5 . The Kalahari Thorn and Bushveld. 6 . The Sweet Veld of the Northern Transvaal. It must be realised that, for the sake of convenience in the preparation of this paper, some vegetal