ON THE LAND
From page 29
❑ Deep tracks develop along fences or stock camp areas , which then act as runoffs for surface water . ❑ Water in drains and streams beside the grazed paddocks becomes coloured by sediment . ❑ There is nutrient loss from surface runoff . ❑ It becomes impossible to walk across your field without sinking in or your stock is sinking into the veld while they are grazing . ❑ You will observe lower overall production when the pasture dries out . ❑ You will have areas of bare ground that do not grass over for long periods or you have rapid weed growth on bare areas , leading to more work and cost of spraying . ❑ Damaged drains no longer function , so surface water is visible . On the other hand , you will know that you don ' t have that problem when you can continue to use that field for grazing into winter and the signs of hoof marks disappear .
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Your pastures should then achieve their full annual growth potential . If you do have a pugging problem , ideally you would withdraw the animals altogether for a number of months to enable the soil to recover - but few smallholders have enough grazing land to be able to do that . So you will need to keep a
Waterlogged field
close watch on the pastures when they are grazed in wet conditions . Be prepared to remove stock from pasture when the first signs of damage appear and then use on / off grazing strategies . We need to be creative in managing what grazing we do have . You might have to temporarily fence off the damaged areas and where stock like to congregate , and only allow the livestock onto the well grassed areas . You can speed up your rotation system , so that the animals are not in the field for as long as usual . Don ' t graze areas next to waterways - fence them off . Provide enough water troughs to prevent stock walking long distances to drink . If you can , move stock across grassed areas rather than across grazed areas . Don ' t let stock get too hungry so they walk along the fences while waiting to come in at night . Then you must consider if you need more than just rest to bring about rejuvenation of the grass . You might need to plough up the damaged areas and reseed in spring with a good veld grass seed mix . Alternatively you could embrace the collection of mud and water and turn the area into a mini wetland , wildlife pond or marsh garden . If you already have water in your field that has not drained away or evaporated , and it is in a convenient spot , you can design a pond next to it . The land needs to be reasonably flat –
Continued on page 31